FROM STEPHEN BODIO'S QUERENCIA

I've been catching bits and pieces of this for a while now. Thanks to Stephen over at "QUERENCIA" for bringing this news to the fore front of his Blog. You, I, and every serious "Dog Man/Woman" better sit up and smell the smoke coming over the horizon. Small fire now, but just let the wind catch it and we'll all get scorched. AP

The below printed by permission from Stephen Bodio.

Politicians & Animal Rights vs the right to breed YOUR dogs

By intention I don't do much politics here- I am neither partisan or, mostly, interested enough. But does ANYONE pay attention to the fact that one socially conservative Republican presidential candidate, Rick Santorum, is in bed with HSUS, Wayne Pacelle, and the whole Animal Rights movement, and has been for many years? Worse, he seems to fly totally under the radar. If you care about hunting, or, especially, private dog breeding, Google “Santorum HSUS” or "Animal Rights" or even "Wayne Pacelle"...

A lot of nutty stuff left and right, approving and critical, is available, but some of real substance is up too. Many people think or comment "I'm against puppy mills." Fine, but much of the proposed legislation, like Governor Perry's below or some of Santorum's failed attempts, would not just ban commercial breeders (who in any case have the money to move, fight, rebuild their kennels in technical compliance, or otherwise evade). Such laws would have prohibited my breeding (all of five non- profit pre- homed unique sighthound litters so far), and/ or have stopped me from bringing over my entire hound family, including Ataika, Queen of the World, who we got and lived with for a month in Almaty-- she was among other things, including just IMPORTED (apparently inherently evil), under 6 months old. Think she would have been as social and civilized later?*

The very sane Bob Kane on Santorum's proposed 2005 PAWS bill:

"PAWS has virtually nothing to do with animal welfare or closing Animal Welfare Act "loopholes." It's a direct attack on U.S. hobby breeders, hunting dog owners and animal rescuers. PAWS federalizes hobby pet breeding."

And then there is his fellow Republican Rick Perry, who fails on dumbass grounds anyway but tends to pose as a red blooded western foe of bureaucracy. I call bullshit. From petbreedersandowners.com: “HB1451 created a new state agency, allows for entry into a private residence without the owners presence, establishes a public database to include the private information of pet breeders, established a bounty fund for animal rights activists to report pet breeders to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, and is a contradiction of the key values supposedly upheld by Gov. Perry. These bills were heavily backed by the H$U$, ASPCA, PETA, and other animal rights groups, and promote their agenda.”

Statist meddlers & "botherers" both...

The results can be seen in Continental European countries, where an unholy alliance of government and closed registry breed clubs can now decide who is born. A friend in Germany wrote:

"But here in Germany it is very difficult to breed with brindle salukis. I think you remember the brindle Metzlers dogs. They tried to get permission to breed their bitch Bahia, but in the shows they only got a "good" and that is not good enough for the breeding permissions."

Priceless unique genetic diversity is being lost for no demonstrable reason at all, and it CAN happen here-- intact dogs of my AKC and Saluki Club unacceptable bloodlines are in peril of compulsory sterilization in Albuquerque because of former (Democrat-- stupid knows no partisan boundaries) Mayor Marty Chavez's Orwellianly- named HEART regs. Longdogs and staghounds, types prized and run in New Mexico longer than (I suspect) the authors of such regulations, are mere worthless "mongrels" of course.
Stephen Bodio

AND

Why we won't shut up

An important addition to, or even substitute for, my rant about ignorant or simply stupid politicians and regulations posted below, and their effect on dogs (and ultimately animal keeping and breeding as we know it); from Jess at Desert Windhounds. She says it all, and minces no words. Sample:

"The breeders who breed dogs for conformation shows are held up as the end all, be all, the True Responsible Breeders, regardless of the fact that they represent only a tiny portion of dog breeders. Look at any 'how to spot a responsible breeder' list or breed book, and you will be advised to seek out a breeder who shows. This has a terrible effect on proposed and passed legislation here in the United States. The defining characteristics of the 'responsible breeder' are directly responsible for much of the language in restrictive breeding legislation. The anti-breeding contingent is very clever about using the 'ingroups' very in-ness against them, because they are guaranteed to sound reasonable to people who look up to, but aren't part of, that ingroup. Here's how it works:

"Responsible breeders show or otherwise compete with their dogs."

"This gets us mandatory spay/neuter laws where the only exemptions are show dogs. Got a nice dog that hates to show? Too bad. Have crosses of any kind? Too bad. Breed pets? Too bad. Not the competitive type? Too bad."

(Snip)

""Responsible breeders NEVER cross-breed."

"You know how I feel about that one, it has been used repeatedly to define me as irresponsible. It is now illegal to cross-breed in El Paso [my emphasis--SB] and Los Angeles, and the breeding of unregistered dogs is forbidden. A list of 'approved' registries will usually go along with this type of law, putting people with rare breeds unrecognized by the larger registries at risk."

(El P! North Juarez! The city of Tom Russel border ballads, on the cusp of Texas and old and Nuevo Mexico--! Of course, Chicago bans pigeons these days...)

This is really a mandatory "Read The Whole Thing". Virtually EVERY DOG THAT APPEARS HERE REGULARLY, or that I have ever bred, is ineligible to breed under Los Angeles and fer Chrissake EL PASO rules, and arguably or at least practically speaking by Albuquerque ones, be they rare breeds, salukis blocked by SCOA factions because they come from improper countries or have "bad" colors, lurchers, or longdogs. I am tired of hearing (A) it won't affect me (B) I'll just ignore it (C) I live in a rural place. You know my favorite Trotsky paraphrase: You may not be interested in "X", but "X" IS interested in you.

More cheerful programming to resume soon. Stephen Bodio