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What you need to know about PETA

By Rene Luke with assistance from Carole Weinberger

 

What you need to know: From PETA's website, they say, in part, that “...PETA focuses its attention on the four areas in which the largest numbers of animals suffer the most intensely for the longest periods of time: on factory farms, in laboratories, in the clothing trade, and in the entertainment industry. We also work on a variety of other issues, including the cruel killing of beavers, birds and other "pests," and the abuse of backyard dogs.”

Fact: It sounds nice on the surface and they have brought a great deal of attention to the abuse of animals and spawned legislation to end blatant torture of animals. However, they take their tactics too far and have come out as a challenge to lawful, honest breeders in their attempts to take out Puppy Mills and shameless “back-yard breeders”.

PETA Says the AKC is “...a group which discourages spay/neuter legislation and bills aimed at protecting pets from abuse as part of its agenda to cash in on the business, while millions of homeless animals die in shelters and on the streets.”

FACT: The AKC has a very strict policy of allowing breeders to decide which dogs may remain intact. Evidence of this is in the “Limited Registration” breeders can give new owners that allows them to register their pet with the AKC, while preventing the offspring from being AKC registrable, thus removing the profit motive involved with selling AKC registered puppies. This protects the genetic integrity of our breeds and the breeder. Additionally, breeders may require a new owner to sign a contract guaranteeing sterilization within a set number of months of receipt of the puppy. Since a majority of puppies born to breeders are not show quality, these contracts greatly affect the number of illegitimate puppies. As the AKC only attracts honest breeders (for the most part), the people who will commit breeder fraud are going to regardless of limiting legislation. Additionally, the AKC works with breeders, encouraging them to find honest owners. The higher price of pure-bred dogs prevents the majority of those who plan to commit cruel acts from acquiring victims. The AKC does not recognize nor do they legitimize the breeding of dogs for fighting.

Lauren Hay-Lavitt of the AKC Jr. News says this: “...PETA, HSUS and other groups have already managed to spread their messages, using celebrities, scare tactics and emotional hype to convince people to support them. What they are lacking is factual information; when the facts don’t fit their message, they simply distort the truth. Most people accept them at face value. My goal is to spread the word about those groups’ ultimate goals, and to get the truth out to the general public. PETA, etc., have gone so far as to take their campaigns into schools, targeting young people with their propaganda...”

And PETA has compared the AKC to the KKK, stating the goal of the AKC is “...creating a doggie 'master race'”, something we know is not true. PETA maintains that lawful breeding and keeping of pets and showing dogs in competition is cruel. If PETA could but build a time machine and travel back to the first days of domestication to prevent those first moments of cooperation between humans and wolves that led us to where we are today they probably would.

Our intent on these webpages, both here and the AKC and other breed club sites is to make the public aware of legislation that threatens the relationship between the owner and their companion animal. We also want to protect the rights of legitimate breeders who strive to produce genetically sound canines for pets and show. Further information may be acquired from the AKC and by contacting the president of your local pure-bred dog clubs.