From the monthly column "On the Line". ShowSight Magazine, March 2019 Issue. Click to subcribe.
Political movements affect your pets, your wallet, and policies that protect things you take for granted such as freedom of choice. “For example, the “right to privacy” is a hot button issue today, thanks to social media. Even the “right to choose” is weighted by Google and Reuters which feeds most of what you see on your phone or TV screen.
One of the most familiar political movements is animal rights. America is an animal-loving country. It’s in our genes just like the rebellious DNA that led us to strike out across the ocean to a “free world” where we had choices and the right to succeed or fail. Over the last decade, Animal Rights has become a clever subterfuge, a noble-sounding “cause” that diminishes Human Rights.
Did you know that Animal Rights were recognized in the Qu’ran under Sharia (Islamic law)? That was a good thing, not the kind of animal “rights” that became a political weapon with which to subvert human rights.
All across America we are regulated in our choice of pets, how many we can own, where we can own them and how we can use them. You know the laws I’m talking about but did you know how much PROFIT there is in regulating? In seizing animals and property? Laws that force you to get a license ($) for your pet. Laws that mandate you get it vaccinated ($) fence it or be fined ($) and to pay extra rental fees ($) if you own a pet. You may not have thought about seizing people. I’ll get to that.
First let’s talk about the politics of Gun Rights because it’s important background to what you are about to read. Muzzleloaders that protected this country from the Brits, the French, and the Spaniards. Much improved rifles enabled us to wrest North America away from the “native” Americans who had lived here for centuries. Then came “six guns” that defined the Wild West to the point that guns had to be regulated in 1881 Tombstone.
The “right to bear arms” is so ingrained in American history that it was the Second Amendment to our Constitution. Even so, to “open carry” a handgun you have to be licensed ($) in currently, 20 states. Lina Basquette and other judges who preferred to drive to their dog show assignments carried a firearm. Lina almost went to jail in Mississippi when a trooper pulled her over. If you knew Lina the movie star, you know she charmed him into letting her go.
How ironic that little by little, we are being conditioned to give up the very freedom that Americans die to protect in other countries.
Is it any wonder that we give up the right to own dogs of certain breeds or of large size?
First, that Second Amendment thing. Did you know that boys were considered old enough to fight and “bear arms” by the time they were 14 or 15? Many gave their young lives to protect and settle this country. My Comanche ancestors went on their first buffalo hunt at 16 years of age, thus achieving warrior status. Today Americans can enlist in the military at age 17.
But you have to be 21 to buy a pistol?! Is legislating away the right to keep and bear arms about control or money? In order to answer that you have but to consider that we are cleverly conditioned, trained like a trick dog. We have to buy a license to drive a car and while that may keep inept drivers off the road, why should you have to buy a license plate in order to drive that car? Oh, right, to fix the potholes…
Many people speculate that taking away our right to own dogs unless we “license” them was a test, laying the groundwork for taking away other elemental, taken-for-
granted rights.
There was a recent survey in which one of the questions posed was whether or not there was a firearm in the home. While you’re thinking “So What?” There was also a question about the age range of persons living in the home. The premise was that “older people” have “cognitive decline” and therefore should not have a firearm in the home. Does that mean your 60 year-old mother who lives alone should be deprived of the Constitutional Right to protect herself? And in many neighborhoods, she may not be afforded the right to have a purebred dog of her choosing.
Are you thinking? Don’t turn the page yet. I know ShowSight is about dogs but that doesn’t mean you ignore life… 20 years ago no one would have said that any local agency or “group” would have the power to seize a person’s pets or livestock. Today a health care worker can have your mother, father or elderly friend “seized” and committed to an institution. It is not much more difficult than getting a warrant or court order to confiscate your animals on the premise that they are neglected.
If you hate politics, don’t breed enough to worry about Animal Rights, and don’t see how any of this could affect you or your dogs… pray you don’t age without friends and family who will protect you. TheDogPress.com has reported on specific cases of unwarranted animal seizures, property seizure, and a growing concern about caring for our Elders.
What in the world is happening to America?
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