CA Attorney General betrays children and animals
CA Attorney General betrays children and animals
News and headlines for November 12 - November 24, 2023
These are some of the stories making headlines in animal protection:
But first, Happy Gotcha Day to Ziggy, my handsome little man. I found Ziggy in a parking lot while walking my dog. I started coming every day to feed him. This is him waiting for me to feed him while hissing and yelling at me:
I told him that resistance was futile — that I would get him and make him mine. The next day, he was in our bathroom.
Happy Gotcha Day to Newbie, too. King pigeons are sold in Asian markets to be eaten — and that was almost certainly to be his fate. Some people rescue them by buying them and then releasing them in the hills where we live, which is probably how he got up here, but they are unable to survive on their own.
That was November 24, 2019.
Rescue is what happens when you are busy making other plans.
November 11 was the solemn anniversary of the ASPCA’s killing of Oreo, an abused dog who a No Kill sanctuary offered to save. Oreo was a one-year-old dog thrown off the roof of a six-floor Brooklyn apartment building. She suffered two broken legs and a fractured rib. Several of the neighbors in the building reported hearing her being beaten.
The ASPCA nursed her back to health and arrested the perpetrator. They also dubbed her the “miracle dog” and fundraised off her plight, reportedly raising millions. But the miracle was short-lived. After the money was counted and safely deposited into ASPCA bank accounts, the ASPCA decided to kill her.
If it was true that Oreo was still traumatized and untrusting, as they claimed, who could blame her? Although the ASPCA could have cared for Oreo as long as it took to get her to trust again, they refused. But others came forward to offer a second chance the ASPCA would not.
A No Kill sanctuary near the ASPCA, which specializes in rehabilitating dogs (and, if that proves impossible, safely caring for them for the rest of their lives), contacted the ASPCA to ask if they could assume responsibility for Oreo. They made numerous telephone calls and sent multiple emails. They were ignored, hung up on, and lied to. Two group volunteers even went to the ASPCA but were escorted out after ASPCA managers refused to meet with them.
On a cold morning in November, Oreo was killed, not by her abuser but by those whose mission it was to protect her. The kennel the sanctuary readied in anticipation of her arrival lay empty and unused that day, filled with a soft bed, a pool of water, and several toys for her to play with. Instead, the ASPCA discarded Oreo’s body in a landfill.
Legislation to make it illegal to kill animals when qualified rescue organizations are willing to save them has been introduced on a regular basis, but New York Assemblymember Donna Lupardo refuses to allow a vote at the behest of the ASPCA. Instead of enjoying the loving new homes rescue groups would have found them, 350,000 more animals have been killed because of the ASPCA and its enablers like Assemblymember Lupardo.
Peter Singer, the Princeton professor, world-renown philosopher, and author of the book “Animal Liberation,” is promoting an article that claims it is “morally permissible” to have sex with animals — defending rape. Of course, Singer doesn’t call it rape, and he doesn’t believe it is rape.
But in “Zoophilia is Morally Permissible,” an article he edited and had published in a Journal he is edito of, the article’s author — who uses a pseudonym to hide his identity — laments that “Zoophilia is one of the few sexual orientations (along with e.g. necrophilia or pedophilia) that remain offlimits and have been left aside from the sexual liberation movement in the past fifty years. I would like to argue that this is a mistake. There is in fact nothing wrong with having sex with animals.”
Given that the article is similar in language and argument to a past essay Singer wrote, “Heavy Petting,” some have suspected that he is, in fact, the author, but Singer denies it. Whether he did or didn’t pen it doesn’t matter. Singer embraced it as an editor, published it in his Journal, endorsed it as an advocate, promoted it to the world through social media, and vigorously defended it.
He is wrong, and it pains me that anyone must be convinced of this.
If you have not watched the newest episode of Bob’s Burgers (on Hulu) — or you do not watch the show — you must. In “The (Raccoon) King and I,” the most recent episode, Linda calls Animal Control to help her catch a raccoon with an injured paw but is told by Teddy that she just signed the raccoon’s death warrant: “Animal control isn’t who you call when you want to HELP an animal.” He explains how they use cruel catch/control poles and then “deal” with the animals by killing them. The rest of the episode is about the gang trying to save the raccoon from the ACO. The show captures the zeitgeist of our movement.
The killing of dogs is on pace to double this year. And for the first time in decades, the killing of cats is rising, too. In its “State of Shelter Adoption Report,” Hills Pet Nutrition claims inflation is to blame and there is “no discernible solution in sight.” Both claims are a lie. Cat and dog surrender rates have not increased. In fact, dog surrender rates are decreasing, both are still well below pre-pandemic levels, and we know how to end the killing.