Animal welfare is a great thing, and kudos to all of you who have done your part by rescuing animals, or working with your local humane society. But, there is a very evil dark side to all of this that few are really aware of because it has been hidden from them.
There are many groups out there, most national in scope, who would have you to believe that they are for animal welfare (humane and responsible trestment of animals), but are really for animal rights (animals have the same rights people do, and should not be used or joined to people in any way.) These people are smart, deceptive, and downright evil. I spend much of my free time fighting these organizations.
Who are these organizations? PETA is one of them, and they are known for their outrageous stunts. The Humane Society of the US (HSUS) is another one, and far more dangerous than PETA because they are working to separate you from your animals by legislation. (They should not be confused with your local humane society. The vast majority of these groups do good work. They have stolen the name to get donations, and unfortunately have enough legal protection that they go on using that name.) The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) is yet another. A really dangerous group is the Animal Protection Institute (API). They are currently going from state to state trying to ban the ownership of any animal besides a dog or cat (and dogs and cats will be next). There are many others. Combined together, these groups fleece the public for well over $100 million a year. (Notice that the group mentioned above is tied up with several of these animal rights groups.)
Some of these groups openly support terrorism and violence. PETA, for instance, has openly defended members of the terrorist groups ALF (Animal liberation Front) and (Earth Liberation Front). (If you don't believe this, look up PETA's form 990 tax return.) ALF and ELF are responsible for firebombings, poisionings, destruction of research labs, releasing captive animals, spray painting furs and other socially unacceptable activities.
If you visit the website of the Center for Consumer Fredom, you can read about the vast evil these groups are up to.
www.consumerfreedom.com Look around their site for things like 'PETA kills animals'.
Why am I so passionate about this? I work with a lot of people who keep exotic animals, and these groups are violently and relentlessly attacking us. Every year, more and more states and localities ban the ownership of exotic animals, often for no other reason than a member of the aforementioned groups has been lobbying in that locality. Or, there might be an accident with an exotic animal (which are actually extremely rare, considering the number of exotic animals out there. Most of the serious accidents involve animal professionals like zookeepers or trainers, who chose to do this kind of work and know the risks.). Or, someone might not take care of their animals, and it makes the news. These groups then move in like vultures, and get their laws passed. Everyone is hurt by these laws, including the responsible owners. For instance, laws passed in kentucky last year put most small zoos out of business. A similar law just passed in Kansas will make it very hard for small facilities with exotic animal to stay in business, even if their care is excellent. I could go on and on.
Because the goal of these orginizations is 'no captive animals', they are against conservation breeding of endangered species (unless in the wild, of which for many of these species, there is little wild left). They want no human contact with these animals. they also spread myths and legends about how exotic animals are carriers of horrible diseases (the overwhelming majority carry no such diseases).
Basically, if these groups are not stopped, the only lions you will see in the future is in books and museums.
So, if you want to help animal welfare, support your local humane society. Avoid the aforementioned groups or any with similar names.
In the interest of maintaining peace on these forums, this will be my only post on this subject. If you want to learn more, or discuss these things, email me off-list.
