Comments Geraldine Clarke has made

civility; kidnapping

It's so very sad but I NEVER get a response when I try to create a forum to discuss the difference between animal welfare and "animal rights" where we can to try to find a way that we can work together so we can use our time and energy to benefit the animals we love instead of squandering that energy fighting each other.  I contacted caniscandida about this both here and privately and didn't get any response. That is absolutely typical of all my attempts to try get both sides to talk to each other.  

The people on my side ("evil breeders" all) would love to open up discussions so that we can find a way to work together to make sure that NO animal is ever killed for the lack of a home.  We all want that but the "animal rights" people will not talk to us.

I (and most other breeders) have rescued far more animals than we have bred but we and the people who get dogs from us are not going to take a pit bull or terrier mix from a shelter instead of a puppy from a breed that we have fallen in love with and have waited a long time for. We might take in that shelter dog in addition to the dog we want (I have) but we will still get that puppy we want.  The current PETA ad campaign that insists that every puppy bought from a breeder means that a dog will die in a shelter is absolute nonsense (and this is coming from PETA which kills 93% of the animals it gets its hands on, including very adoptable animals!)

So sad....

Geraldine Clarke
Balabar Salukis

 On Upton Sinclair on downer cows posted 1 year, 8 months ago 20 Responses

animal rights, Republicans and dogs

Oh dear, so many points to respond to....  This will be long.  Please bear with me.

Although the terminology is used interchangeably so discussion gets very muddy, experience has shown me that there is a vast difference between people who devote themselves to animal welfare and those who work for "animal rights".  Although I disagree with them occasionally, I definitely put Best Friends into the animal welfare category.  I have contributed to them in the past and will do so again in the future.  You are right; Vick's dogs is an excellent case in point.  Both PETA and HSUS called for killing all those poor animals immediately but many of them are now finding wonderful new homes that will give them happy lives.

The day the Vick's story came out, HSUS, hypocritically, flooded the US with emotional appeals for money to help them "save Vick's dogs!"  but, when we pointed out that the dogs were being held as evidence for the trial and HSUS had absolutely no control over them, HSUS had to change their campaign to a less lucrative "Stop Dog-fighting" pitch but I'm sure that they raked in many millions from people who thought that their money would be going to help those unfortunate dogs. (Two weeks later HSUS tried to get them all killed.) It would have been so much, much better if that money had gone to Best Friends.

In the "downer cow" thread here, I've already answered your question about why HSUS waited so long before alerting the UDSA to the slaughterhouse abuses. Please read it; I would really, honestly, like to hear what you think about my post. HSUS spends its time garnering political power, not helping animals.

I never stated that most people devoting their lives to helping animals have neurotically transferred childhood experiences.  I clearly stated that I was referring to the fanatics.  Of course, childhood experiences determine our ethical opinions!  But we can choose to deal with and work through our bad experiences and let them turn us into sensitive individuals devoted to rationally eradicating injustice or, we can let ego and anger control us and not deal with our issues and instead turn our anger outward to try to force a warped sense of morality onto other people's lives.  Ingrid Newkirk (PETA) definitely falls into the latter category.  She is so filled with hate that she kills 97% of the animals that she gets control of.

The reasoning and civility of your post, caniscandida, is so refreshing.  Over the last few years of discussing these issues with people who disagreed with me I have been spat upon, called all kinds of horrible names, been physically accosted which resulted in bruises, gotten hate mail and had people try to follow me home from a meeting I testified at.  (All those hours of watching "Rockford Files" were not wasted as I used Rockford's techniques to elude my pursuers <G> but I now have padlocks on all my gates and I NEVER leave my dogs unattended.  I live in fear just because I occasionally breed a litter of salukis who go to loving homes. I'm a breeder and, therefore, totally evil in the minds of those fanatics.)  

Several years ago, I rented an apartment at a ranch that housed a dog rescue. The owner of the rescue was cool but, when some of the people who worked with her rescue discovered that I had an unspayed bitch, they began whispering whenever they saw me.  Later, one of them with a heart alerted me to the fact that they were planning to kidnap my dog and spay her. I moved very quickly and left no forwarding address.  That dog went on to get her AKC championship and became a registered therapy dog who does wonderful work and she's passed along her great qualities to a litter that has brought delight into the lives of their owners.

There is a cultural war going on that is not being covered in the media.  A small number of True Believer fanatics to whom "animal rights" is a religion has, working diligently for decades, taken control of all discussion about animals in the media and, especially, in the Democratic Party.

I have spent the last two years fighting AR inspired legislation and I am filled with disgust. I have never before in my life seen so much lying  and bullying.  (And I worked in Hollywood for over 30 years so that is saying a lot!)  I've watched Wayne Pacelle (HSUS CEO) lie through his teeth to the CA legislature when we had just presented documentation that what he was saying was false.  But Pacelle is slick (HSUS = PETA in a suit) and the legislators chose to believe his oily lies rather than to wade through the 200+ pages of documentation that proved that what he was saying was false.  I have witnessed. up close and very personal, the husband of Judie Mancuso, the person behind AB1634, the proposed CA MSN (mandatory spay/neuter)law, wearing a fake badge and impersonating an official, trying to stop the opponents of that law from getting into a hearing while letting his supporters in - bullying and lying combined in one suit.

Again and again, it is the Democrats that fall for the AR lies.  We breeders only have ourselves to blame because, for the last few decades while we were raising, training, loving and caring for our dogs we did not get into the political arena. Meanwhile, PETA and the AR fanatics have been effusively courting Dems.  Now that we are all afraid, we are trying to make up for lost ground and are doing our best to educate the Democratic Party on the difference between animal welfare and "animal rights".  That was my New Year's resolution for 2007 and renewed again for 2008.

While I will never vote Republican on the national level, at my local (very liberal) level, at the moment, the Republicans (who all want the war in Iraq to end NOW) are the better choice in my opinion.  Not only are the self-satisfied, entrenched Dems catering to the radical fringe of the AR movement, they have, among other awful things, been harassing a Middle-Eastern immigrant, a self-made man in the best American tradition, evicting the tenants of his properties under eminent domain and using the fact that his buildings are now vacant to justify taking his property so that they can create a yuppified neighborhood as their "legacy".  In this case, the local Republicans are the liberals.  "Nanny state" Dems are NOT liberal.  The establishment Dems lost their soul and their claim to moral suppority long ago.  They let Newt Gingrich polarize political discussion so politics as "the art of compromise" became impossible. And they didn't get up and SCREAM for impeachment when the lies that got us into this horrible war were exposed. nuff said....

OK, what in you post have I not covered yet?

Dog breeding:  

Through the ages, intelligent breeders of working dogs always bred away from genetic problems. This is getting so much easier now with all the genetic testing that is becoming available.  At the moment, you are much less likely to get a pup with genetic problems from a dedicated breeder than from a shelter.  (I can personally attest to this; the only dog in my house with genetic problems is a mixed breed I rescued from a shelter.)  This is why it is so hilarious when the AR crazies scream the we breeders are only in it for the money (and evading taxes to boot!) because I go into the hole at least $2000 every time I breed a litter because of all the vet costs I incur to make sure that potential puppies will be healthy.

You asked about the laws I am opposing that threaten the future of my breed.  There are so many that I can only summarize here.  It has become obvious that 2007 was targeted in the long-range planning by HSUS as the year that they would make their "Great Leap Forward" in legislation that would promote their ultimate aim to force us all to be petless vegans.  So many very similar laws surfaced in so many places that it cannot be a coincidence.  And, in most of those places, if you scratch the surface, you'll find an HSUS rep.

HSUS has worked out a very long-range plan which they are implementing, small step by small step. Last week I saw this plan in action. I listened in to the hearing about two laws proposed for the state of Maine.  On their surface, they do not look terribly awful.  But then the Maine HSUS rep started testifying that HSUS REALLY, REALLY wants to support "good breeders" and only wants to get rid of the "evil puppy mills".  The very next day I watched the passage of an egregious mandatory neuter law passed by the Los Angeles City Council which, effectively, outlaws all legal breeding in that city despite the supposed "licences" for serious breeders. And who was the most praised person for getting this law passed?  Yep, the local HSUS rep.  

A law like this would never pass in Maine right now and HSUS knows it so they have set up a "slippery slope" law that will allow them to come back in a few years and try to ramrod through a MSN law.  And, of course, in L.A. they will be back to eliminate the supposed "exceptions".  Their AR media people are already at work on it.

HSUS has over $100,000,000.00 a year in donations which they spend on their legislative agenda.  (We've shamed them a bit since their Katrina debacle so, instead of charging local Humane Societies (which do good work!) and shelters for their services like they used to do, they are now donating a tiny bit to them and touting their donations to the hilt in the press.)

Getting back to the proposed laws that I am so threatened by: The MSN (mandatory spay/neuter) laws that are sweeping the country are the worst.  They usually come with licences for "exceptions" for show dogs, police dogs et al. that make the laws look reasonable.  But, when you look a little further, you'll discover that things like "kennel licences" will be required and kennel licences are impossible to get in urban homes that can most effectively rear well-socialized dogs.  

I could go on and on about about all the "tricks" in these proposed laws that will make legal breeding by responsible, dedicated breeders next to impossible but what makes me the most angry is that I have to spend so much time fighting these laws to protect my beloved salukis when I could be out there saving other animals like I have done all of my life and work for environmental causes like I have also done all my life.

There IS an answer to the problem of animals killed in shelters. Nathan Winograd managed to turn around shelters in San Francisco and Tompkin's County from places that killed many animals into places where NO adoptable animal was ever put down.  Please read Winograd's "Redemption: the Myth of Pet Overpopulation and the No Kill Revolution in America".  PETA and HSUS have been jumping through hoops to try to discredit Winograd but his record of success speaks for itself.  Could it be that, if Winograd's methods are implemented all over the country and all adoptable animals find homes, there will be no sad-faced animals left in shelters for PETA and HSUS to use bilk those millions out of the American public?

Please read Winograd!

Geraldine Clarke
Balabar SalukisOn Upton Sinclair on downer cows posted 1 year, 9 months ago 20 Responses

Did HSUS take too long?

Well, I think I know the answer to that question.  I've been following the HSUS for several years now, ever since stories surfaced after the Katrina animal rescue efforts where HSUS hindered the other rescuers, the "pit bulls" they took in just "disappeared" and they never satisfactorily accounted for how they spent the many millions that people sent in, expecting that it would go to the rescue and care for the animal victims of Katrina.  The Louisiana Attorney General is investigating this.

HSUS takes in over $100,000,000.00 a year that people think will be going to help the sad-faced animals in the HSUS ads or go to help animals in their local Humane Society shelters.  HSUS operates NO shelters, they do not support local Humane Societies and their money goes to finance a well thought-out campaign to promote their radical vegan agenda.

Any truly humane person who saw and filmed that horrible treatment of animals would have sent the footage to the USDA and the media IMMEDIATELY and informed the management of the slaughterhouse that he had done so and that that treatment must stop NOW!  

But HSUS waited for weeks before reporting it and, we must assume, the horrible treatment continued.  I am convinced that HSUS decided that the story would get much bigger coverage if they waited until the meat from the downer cows had been distributed and consumed.  HSUS does great research so I'm sure that they knew that much of the meat would go to school lunch programs.  And it worked!  The media is eating up (no pun intended) the story and is not questioning why the abuses were allowed to continue for so long after they were discovered.

This is just another instance where HSUS has ignored animal suffering to further their political aims.

HSUS took a radical turn into fanaticism some years back when Wayne Pacelle took over the organization.  If you want to know what he is thinking and planning, there are verified quotes from him at: http://www.naiaonline.org/articles/archives/animalrightsq ...

I abhor the treatment depicted in this footage.  But I equally abhor that individuals would let it continue for political purposes.

I know vegetarians will disagree with me (I won't even attempt to deal with vegan ideology - anyone who thinks that taking eggs from a chicken or milk from a cow is cruelty knows absolutely NOTHING about those animals), but it is possible to humanely slaughter animals.  The fact that so much of the meat industry has employed the techniques developed by Temple Grandin shows that management is not insensible to humane considerations.

I do my best to buy grass-fed meat from local farmers who treat their animals well.  It's hard to do but grass-fed meat from small farmers is starting to show up in my local supermarket.  It still costs more but I'm happy to eat less meat so I can support local farmers.On Despite biggest meat recall ever, 37 million pounds of suspect meat made it to schools. posted 1 year, 9 months ago 13 Responses