They Came for the Bassets

These days the media seems to be filled with stories of dogs seized from puppy mills, dog fighting operations, animal hoarders and abusive homes.  Millions of average pet owners across America read these stories with a mixture of outrage against the animal abusers and pity for the abused animals. Relieved that the unfortunate animals were saved from a terrible fate, they move on to the next story, never considering that there might be more to the story than meets the eye…

I doubt that any of us thinks that we’re an animal abuser.  While ideas on owning and raising dogs are at least as wide-ranging (and deeply emotionally driven) as those on rearing children, most of us feel that our ideas fall well within the mainstream and that we have little to fear from animal rights legislation. But if we remain content to sit back - silent and uninformed - will we find that our dogs are next in line to be seized?

The idea is not as far-fetched as you may think.  Today, Never Yet Melted (go and read it all!) reports that:

The sort of people who go in for basseting are typically well-educated, upper middle-class animal lovers of a preparatory school sort of background. In other words, absolutely the last sort of people imaginable as dog abusers or law breakers.

But neither gentility nor middle-aged respectability was sufficient to protect the Murder Hollow’s master Wendy Willard from a full scale raid by Philadelphia police, nor did it prevent 13 hounds from being taken from their kennels and turned over to a private animal rights organization hostile to hunting.

At night, and without warning the SPCA of Pennsylvania showed up at raided Wendy Willard’s kennel and seized the dogs under the aegis of a newly passed law that allows no more than twelve animals to be kept on any property in Philadelphia County (note if they had just given her a chance it appears that Willard may have been able to get a waiverthat would allow her to keep her dogs).  Not only were the animals turned over to (i.e. given away to) a private entity – some of the hounds seized were reportedly the property of another person and were only being kept at Murder Hollow temporarily.  Apparently the jack-booted AR fanatics of the PSPCA didn’t give Willard a chance to explain that.

The dog seized have now been spread out among several local shelters and rescue groups (in other kinds of cases – do the police make a habit of giving seized property away?). Neither the dogs’ owners or other area basset pack owners have been able to get any information on the dogs’ location or welfare.

It may be a natural reaction to feel smugly self-rightous when we hear stories about dogs seized from those kinds of  people (i.e. the ones whose practices we don’t happen to agree with) but it’s time to wake up and smell the dog poop.  If a yuppie suburban basset fancier with no criminal record whatsoever isn’t safe from having her beloved dogs seized without notice - none of us is. 

The goal of many of these raids – especially those featured prominently in the media – have nothing to do with animal welfare.  I’m willing to bet dollars to dog toys that the hounds of Murder Hollow were healthier and happier than most over-fed, under-exercised suburban pets.  The goal is the kind of publicity that fills the coffers of ‘humane’ groups who lobby for anti-pet legislation and don’t operate shelters.  And the long term the goal is animal rights - and the end of all pet breeding and ownership.

It’s time. Time to take lobbying power away from the animal rights extremists who want to chip away at pet ownership until it’s gone.  Time to tell our legislators and representative that animal seizures must be conducted in ways that preserve our rights – not as publicity events.  That protecting the animals seized includes considering the possibility that they might be returned to the home they were taken from – and that, as with other seized property, this consideration needs to be given precedence.  (I don’t understand why these kinds of seizures aren’t prohibited under the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment – perhaps someone out there can educate me?)

UPDATE: Here’s Walt Hutchens post re this from Pet-Law. (Walt says all his posts can be cross-posted.)

Ms. Willard was raided by the PSPCA and police due to a first time noise complaint, and told that unless she released 11 of her 23 hounds to them they would seize them all, under a new 12-dog-limit city ordinance.

As my friend Shirly posted over at YesBiscuit:

I have no way of knowing the full facts of the case or whether the post making the rounds is accurate. But to my mind, even if we totally discount it as fiction, the scenario is at least plausible which is what concerns me most.

Exactly. I’m a huge fan of respecting the law.  But even if Ms. Willard was not in compliance with zoning regs, didn’t have a kennel license – or even if she had a filty, nasty, disgusting kennel – she did not deserve to have her dogs, in effect, stolen from her.  The right thing to do, if this was indeed a first time complaint – was to cite her and give her a reasonable time period to come into compliance with the law.
 
This is happening more and more and it scares the crap out of me.  There but for the grace of God…

UPDATE AUGUST 10, 2009:

See new blog posts at Terrierman’s Daily Dose; Stephen Bodio’s Querencia; Never Yet Melted, Philly.com and YesBiscuit and the news story published by The Philadelphia Daily News - and make up your own mind.

No Leash Laws for Wolves?

WDIO Duluth reports:

Linda Ziegler says she let her 5-year-old dachshund, Jenny, outside just before noon last Thursday. Ziegler was standing on her front steps when two timber wolves appeared.

“The minute they spotted her, well that was the end,” said Linda. “They went right after her and they killed her. And they were carrying her around the yard and there was no one around anywhere. So I was under the impression that these two were wild.”

Wolves depredation on dogs in Minnesota has become more common in recent years as wolf populations increase and animals come into more frequent contact with hunters and human habitations.  In Wisconsin, wolf depredation on bear hunting dogs is now a serious enough problem that the DNR has published a guide and maps of ‘caution areas’ to help hunters reduce conflicts.

More wolves means more wolf / dog confrontations. Still, Minnesotans don’t expect to have their dogs killed by wolves during a short pee break in the front yard. Especially when the wolves in question are “tame” animals out on a photo shoot…

The wolves belong to the Minnesota Wildlife Connection. Founder Lee Greenly says the business provided the animals for a photo shoot near the Ziegler’s property when the wolves wandered a little too far.

“I deeply regret that this incident happened and we’ll take precautions,” said Greenly. “99% of the time it’s never a problem. It’s just that 1% that happens, and this happened to be a problem.”

Yeah Lee.  I’m guessing this is much like that 1% of stuff that happens when an untrained, unsupervised dog is allowed to run loose. The times when he kills chickens, craps in the neighbor’s yard, is hit by a car or gets shot for running deer.  It’s also the 1% of stuff that responsible animal owners do their best to avoid. But hey, it’s OK  ’cause, you know – these weren’t dogs. They were wolves.

Greenly says he has several licenses to breed and raise the wolves, which have been trained by Greenly and his family. He says the regulations for letting wildlife run free in rural areas are minimal.

Brilliant Lee!  The fact that the state doesn’t specifically require that wolves be kept on leash obviously gives you the right to let tame wolves who, unlike their wild brethren, have lost their fear of people – run at large in the neighborhood. Leash laws are obviously only meant for domestic dogs and the wimps that own them. Real men own wolves.  And hunt bear.

Lee enjoys the manly sport of bear hunting. So does his pal, country western singer Troy Lee Gentry.  Back in 2006 Minneapolis TV station WCCO reported that:

Investigators said Troy Lee Gentry, half of the Montgomery Gentry duo, killed a tame black bear in an enclosed pen in Sandstone, Minn. in October 2004 and videotaped it.

Investigators said Gentry then edited the video to make it appear as though the animal was shot in the wild.

Shooting bears in a barrel! I’ll bet that’s more fun than hunting wiener dogs with wolves! Unfortunately, while we won’t penalize you for letting your wolf run at large, shooting tame bears is a misdemeanor here in Minnesota. In 2007 CBSNews reported:

Gentry pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in November. Under a plea deal, he agreed to forfeit the bear and the bow he used during the hunt near Sandstone. The 600-pound bear has been part of a taxidermy display at Gentry’s home in Tennessee. He was sentenced Friday.

The bear was killed in October 2004 at the 80-acre Minnesota Wildlife Connection. Owner Lee Marvin Greenly sold the bear for $4,650 and orchestrated the hunt, which Gentry videotaped and edited to make it appear the bear had been killed in a fair chase hunt, according to authorities.

In his plea bargain agreement, Gentry admitted he shot a bear named Cubby from a hunting stand that stood in a 3-acre pen surrounded by an electric fence.  And the wildlife-loving Mr. Greenly set the whole thing up for him (for a fee, of course.)  And unfortunately for Mr. Greenly, the penalties for setting up fake bear hunts are somewhat more serious than those for hunting wieners out of season. According to the Chicago Tribune:

Lee Marvin Greenly, 46, Gentry’s local hunting guide, pleaded guilty at the same hearing to two felony charges of helping other hunters shoot bears at illegal baiting stations he maintained inside a national wildlife refuge near Sandstone in east-central Minnesota.

Our hearts go out to the Zieglers. This was a terrible way to lose a beloved friend. Our sympathies are also extended to Cubby the bear, killed back in 2006. We’d like to suggest that the USDA, Minnesota Dept. of Agriculture and Minnesota DNR consider reviewing the Wildlife Connections‘ permits.  It appears that there may be something rotten in the City of Sandstone…

Breakfast of Champions

The English Shepherd is an all-purpose farm dog.  Unlike more specialized breeds such as Border Collies and terriers, English Shepherds are bred to herd, act as watchdogs and kill vermin.  It’s a breed characterized by substance rather than style. 

The English Shepherd Club doesn’t hold conformation events or award championships.  In fact, they don’t award titles of any kind.  The ESC’s sister group, the American Working Farm Collie Association will, however, award a  Certificate of Merit to dogs who qualify in each of the three working categories (herding, hunting and guarding). To qualify, the owner of the dog must provide verifiable evidence of the dog’s working ability in each category. This evidence can consist of a video tape or a live observation by a qualified AWFA representative.

Both of Audie’s parents have been awarded the PRGN Certificate of Merit.

Breakfast of Champions

This morning  young Audie took the intiative to work on that “hunting vermin” leg on his own.  Here’s a picture of my Minnesota Feist – holding his freshly caught breakfast.

Wolf Predation on Hunting Dogs

According to the Wisconsin DNR:

Wolves guard their territories from other wolves, coyotes, and domestic dogs. Wolves are probably most aggressive toward strange wolves and dogs when wolf pups are small at den and rendezvous sites, during the breeding season in January and February, and when they are protecting a fresh kill. Packs use rendezvous sites from mid June to late September, after the pups are big enough to leave their den. Adult wolves are very defensive of pups at rendezvous sites and will attack other predators, including dogs, that get too close to the rendezvous site or the pups. Hound dogs used for hunting bear, coyotes, bobcat, and raccoons, are perhaps at greatest risk of being attacked by wolves. Dogs used for bird hunting are less likely to be attacked. Wolves normally avoid people and are less likely to approach dogs that are in visual or auditory range of humans.

Back in April, the Bismarck Tribune reported:

Gray wolves, otherwise known as timber wolves, have returned to Wisconsin in healthy numbers after being nearly eliminated from the state by the late 1950s by hunters who feared the animals were threatening the deer herd.

Last year’s surveys showed between 540 and 577 wolves in Wisconsin, Wydeven said.

As the wolf population has increased, so have depredation by some wolves on livestock, pets and hunting dogs has increased, Brust said. A wolf hunting season would be a way to keep the population in check, it also would help retain support for the recovery program, especially in Northern Wisconsin.

The Hudson, WI Star-Observer reports:

The hunters who lose the dogs are compensated but many bear hunters want the DNR to reduce the wolf population.

On the other hand, wolf supporters say the dogs have no right to run loose on public property where the training is supposed to take place.

From the Water and Woods Network:

“Since 1986, when the first claim was filed, we’ve had 82 dogs killed by wolves and 27 injured that we know of,” said Adrian Wydeven, Department of Natural Resources wolf expert.

“We paid for most of those claims, but there were a few cases when people did not request payment.

And:

Wydeven said 80 of the state’s 108 wolf packs are located where bear hunting with dogs is practiced, and three packs have been responsible for most of the recent attacks. “It seems some packs are more prone to attacking dogs,” he said.

Minnesota saw its wolf population increase from an estimated 2,450 in 1998 to 3,020 wolves in 2004 while wolf range remain unchanged. That means wolves are occupying smaller territories.

“I think we’re starting to see some of that here, too,” Wydeven said. “In the last few years, wolf territories have been averaging about 40 square miles. It used to be 50 to 60 square miles. Still, some territories are as small as 20 square miles, and others are as large as 80 to 100 square miles.”

A large deer herd can sustain more wolves on less land, he said. Where deer are in shorter supply, a wolf pack needs a larger territory to sustain it.

As wolf packs evolve into tighter territories, the odds of hunters and their dogs encountering wolves increases.

“We’re starting to see wolves moving into more developed areas,” Wydeven said.

Wolves have also been reported to kill dogs in Minnesota, Idaho, Alaska and the Dakotas.  Predation on bear hunting dogs has become enough of a problem in Wisconsin that the DNR has published a guide to help hunters reduce conflicts between wolves and their dogs and maps of ‘caution areas’where conflicts between dogs and wolves are more likely to occur are available on the WDNR website.  Ten dogs have been killed by wolves in Wisconsin so far this year.  Fifteen were killed in 2007; 23 in 2006; 13 in 2005 and eight in 2004 - so 2008 doesn’t appear to be a remarkable year for wolf depredation on dogs.

USSA Launches Campaign Against HSUS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                May 23, 2008 
Contact: Sharon Hayden (614) 888-4868 ext. 226

                                           

 

Letter Exposes Animal Rights Agenda of HSUS to Feds
 

(Columbus, OH) - The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance (USSA) has demanded that a USDA website correctly identify the world’s largest anti-hunting organization as an animal rights lobbying organization.

The USSA sent a letter to the USDA explaining that the Humane Society of the United States’ “primary purpose is to advocate for sensible public policies” and not provide direct services to shelter, rescue or provide any direct services for animals in need.  The USDA website inaccurately portrays it as a “shelter, rescue and welfare organization”.

HSUS supports an active lobbying campaign and actively lobbies against hunting.  According to the Senate Office of Public Records, HSUS has spent up to $80,000 in a 6-month period on lobbying activities.

Despite its name, it is not in business to operate animal shelters or rescue facilities.

The USDA listings under “Shelters, Rescue and Welfare Organizations” are designed to be a resource for pet owners.

According to the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance, any reference to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) as an animal welfare group, as opposed to correctly designating it an animal rights lobbying organization, gives undeserved credibility to the organization.

“We sent this letter to the department because it is well past the time for the public to be made aware of what the HSUS is all about and that isn’t going to happen if it keeps getting credit it doesn’t deserve,” said Rick Story, senior vice president of the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance (USSA).  “The letter succinctly points out that the HSUS falls under the heading of animal rights lobbying group and why it should be referred to as such.  The HSUS has a full animal rights agenda and wants to end all ownership and use of animals, no matter how responsible.”

This letter is a first step in the campaign announced last week by the USSA that will educate the media, elected officials, the public, sportsmen and the many others targeted by the animal rights group on the hidden, non-mainstream agendas of the HSUS.

As part of this campaign, the USSA has initiated the Sportsmen Against HSUS fund, which will be used in the continuing battle against the HSUS and its animal rights campaign.  In addition to educating people on the group’s hidden agendas, it will fund campaigns combating the public policy threats initiated and supported by the HSUS.

Sportsmen immediately began showing their support for this campaign to expose the HSUS upon hearing of the fund’s launch.

Some recent legislative attacks on sportsmen’s rights by the HSUS include:

• the launching of a campaign to address “puppy mills,” abusive, large-scale, commercial dog breeding operations. However, the deceptive language of the HSUS-backed measures also devastates small hobby breeders, dog show kennels and sporting dog enthusiasts.
• a mandatory spay and neuter bill in California. The measure requires all dogs to be spayed or neutered by the age of six months, making it nearly impossible for sportsmen with mixed-breed sporting dogs to remain in the field.
• opposition to bills from across the country that are intended to lessen barriers for youth and newcomers to take part in hunting.
   

“It is more important than ever that all sportsmen unite to combat the principal enemy of American conservation and the outdoor sports that make conservation possible,” Story said.

To read the letter, Click Here.

To donate to the Sportsmen Against HSUS Fund online, Click Here.  For more information, please contact the USSA at 801 Kingsmill Parkway, Columbus, Ohio, 43229, call (614) 888-4868, or email info@ussportsmen.org.

The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance (USSA) is a national association of sportsmen and sportsmen’s organizations that protects the rights of hunters, anglers and trappers in the courts, legislatures, at the ballot, in Congress and through public education programs.  For more information about the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance and its work, call (614) 888-4868 or visit its website, www.ussportsmen.org.

Hunters 1 – HSUS 0

This just in from the United States Sportsmen’s Alliance:

The leadership at Meijer, a Michigan-based regional chain of retail superstores, has responded to the concerns of the sportsman community and ended its partnership with the anti-hunting group, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), in an online pet photo contest.

Meijer initially refused a U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance (USSA) request to abandon the partnership, which according to information on the Meijer website, called for the company to donate $1 for each person that entered the contest, up to a maximum of $5,000, to the HSUS Foreclosure Pets Fund.

On Friday, April 25, the USSA sent out a call to action for sportsmen to voice their concerns over these donations to the biggest anti-hunting organization in the world.  Sportsmen immediately took action, flooding the retailer with phone calls, faxes and emails. 

Thanks to this action by sportsmen, Meijer has now eliminated the portion of the contest that included a donation to HSUS.

“Our program was an outgrowth of our history of supporting local humane societies.  We were not aware of the concerns that exist among hunters about HSUS.  As you know, we have strongly supported the hunting community over many decades,” said Meijer vice president of corporate communications and public affairs, Stacie Behler.  “We have discontinued our donation program as a result of the feedback.  No new funds will be collected.  The funds that were collected will be used exclusively for their Foreclosure Pets Fund, which is a grants program for animal shelters, non-sheltered rescue/adoption groups and animal care and control agencies to establish, expand, or publicize services or programs that assist families caring for their pets during the current economic crisis.”

Kudos to USSA for their work.  HSUS recently lobbied against dove hunting in my home state of Minnesota.  In a nice bit of editorial work Tori McCormick of my local paper, the Republican Eagle, noted that:

I’m not one to cry foul when an anti-hunting group fires one of its patented rhetorical bombs about the cruelty of hunting and how it isn’t justified in modern-day society.

 If I did, I’d have to spend every waking hour trying to set the record straight.

 Our nation was founded on the broad shoulders of free speech, and I strongly believe that everyone has the right to express their opinion, whether I agree with it or not.

After that insightful little volley where she acknowledges their right to free speech (but not to spew volumes of inane propaganda) she follows up with:

Fact is, hunters waste too much energy worrying about the antis when we should be firing back in their face a simple question: What have you done for wildlife and wildlife habitat? Nothing, that’s what. At least nothing meaningful.

When’s the last time they’ve fought for wetlands protections, healthy forests, farm bill conservation programs, sustainable fisheries and other land and water stewardship initiatives?

The anti-hunting movement has been AWOL, while hunters and anglers, historically and today, have been on the front lines slugging it out.

But when an anti-hunting group wages an anti-hunting campaign based on misinformation, lies and propaganda, a campaign whose ends would comprise conservation and science-based wildlife management, I believe the public record must be corrected.

Amen sister.  While the whiney losers at HSUS and PeTA sit around on their fat, donation-supported asses accomplishing nothing more than spewing lies and promoting bad laws; groups like Ducks Unlimited, Pheasants Forever, the National Wild Turkey Foundation, Quail Unlimited, the Ruffed Grouse Society, Trout Unlimited, the Masters of Foxhounds Association of North America, and the Sierra Club support hunting AND work actively to conserve wild lands.

So, if habitat conservation and the preservation of wildlife are really important to you…. where should YOU donate?