New Book Reveals Dog Shows Promote Dogs

By Jay Kitchener

Book Review:  The Dog Merchants by Kim Kavin

It takes an activist with a degree in journalism to inform us that dog shows promote dogs, and when two dog shows appear on national television, it’s the cause of all substandard dog breeding.  If Kavin really holds a degree in journalism, she might want to ask for her money back.  It’s not journalism to plagiarize the propaganda of controversial animal rights groups.  The source pages in her book are thick with references from the shady Humane Society of the United States.

A self-described expert on the luxury lifestyle of yachts, Kavin misses the boat when it comes to getting this story right.  Somebody throw her a life preserver.  She’s drowning in propaganda.

When a book claims to “expose” the commercial dog breeding and rescue industries, it gets my attention.  I give this activist credit for visiting the Hunte Corporation’s commercial kennels.  Unable to say anything bad about the Hunte facility, Kavin throws responsible journalism overboard and jumps the shark to claim that televised dog shows cause substandard dog breeding. 

The day before the book’s release, Kavin crowed on the Facebook page for her book, “My op-ed in today's Albany Times-Union, urging New York State lawmakers to go beyond passing ‘pet store puppy mill’ bans and also outright evict the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show--the type of event that the American Kennel Club itself calls a huge marketing asset for the business model of commercial-scale puppy farms nationwide.”

Calling for the censorship of an annual American television tradition is not journalism, it’s activism.

In the book Kavin flops around like a fish out of water.  She can’t even get a reference to Prohibition right.  She points out the obvious that government prohibition of alcohol created a black market for alcohol.  However, she fails to make the obvious connection that the kind of government prohibition she’s advocating for would create a black market for dogs.

The Prohibition Movement began as a ban on the sale of alcohol on Sundays only.  It seemed reasonable and most folks supported it.  But over time the movement grew and the mission expanded to become a complete ban on the manufacture, sale and consumption of alcohol in public and in private.  This is exactly where we are heading with the kind of government prohibition Kim Kavin is proposing on dog breeding. 

It wasn’t illegal to drink during prohibition, and it won’t be illegal to own a dog in Kavin’s world.  It will just be illegal to breed a dog in Kavin’s world. 

American’s didn’t stop drinking during Prohibition, they just drank different alcohol—bootleg alcohol.

Americans won’t stop owning dogs in Kavin’s world, but they won’t own purebred dogs. 

Led by the controversial Humane Society of the United States, activists in more than 120 communities across the United States have forced their propaganda on local governments and bullied them to mandate that you many not buy a puppy from a professional breeder in a legitimate pet store, and that you may only buy a puppy in the store supplied by a shelter or rescue organization.  The problem is that these shelter and rescue organizations no longer sell animals in need of homes from the local community.  These organizations now primarily sell animals imported from unknown sources in far-away states and foreign countries with no regulation and no oversight.

The bans on the sale of animals in legitimate pet shops from professional breeders presumes that those breeders are unprofessional and sub-standard.  If that’s true, why would Kavin mandate that your next puppy must come from a mysterious place that might be even worse?

These bans mandate that the public may only purchase animals in a pet shop supplied by shelters and rescue organizations.  Animals sold by shelters and rescue organizations are exempt from consumer protection laws that cover animals sold by breeders.  Why would Kavin remove these protections for consumers and animals?

Government is working hard with activists like Kavin to make sure your next puppy comes from mysterious sources. 

What do you call a book based on propaganda?  More propaganda.  The Dog Merchants by Kim Kavin is one activists’ opinion trying to pass as balanced journalism. 

Written by Jay Kitchener who is a leading advocate in the purebred dog industry. Jay has been on the forefront in preserving the rights of dog breeders and animal owners, and recently helped in turning back an effort to ban retail pet sales in Maine. Jay is now serving as the New England Regional Director for The Cavalry Group.

2015 Will Be No Different

To herald in the New Year, Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) announced his “Big Plans” to push HSUS' emotion-based, agenda-driven policies on Capitol Hill to destroy the pet industry, the horse industry, and animal agriculture.

In an effort to appeal to public sentiment purely as a fund raising tactic, HSUS attempts to redefine time-tested agricultural practices that ensure the health and safety of both people and animals as inhumane.  

Year after year, HSUS attempts to pass their so-called anti-cruelty policies, which are based on emotion, not science -- while imposing unnecessary onerous, and costly regulatory reform at the expense of fewer farms, fewer farmers, higher food prices, and a growing concern of a domestic food shortage.

Just ask Californians who rang in the New Year with the promise of higher egg prices -- perhaps even an egg shortage no thanks to HSUS and their 2008 ballot initiative, Proposition 2 --and its Amendment, AB 1437 signed by Governor Schwarzenegger in 2010.  We (among many others) tried to warn Americans about the dangers of Prop. 2.

While HSUS continues to push their lies and propaganda on Capitol Hill, The Cavalry Group makes the promise of being in Washington, D.C. to inform Congress about the corruption behind HSUS and the true intentions behind their policies.

Sorry, Wayne. The Cavalry Group has Big Plans, too.  And we are looking forward to being the ant at your animal rights policy picnic. 

Happy New Year!

The Cavalry Group Team

Note to the Press: Do Your Due Diligence

Forgive me for being a stater-of-the-obvious, but shame on the animal-rights-coddling media.

This morning, I spent a considerable amount of time on the phone speaking with reporters from different regions of the U.S. to debunk the lies and propaganda that the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has released (yet again)  about licensed dog breeders nationwide.

With each reporter interview, I found myself having to explain basic facts about HSUS' agenda and their assault on pet breeders, animal agriculture, and animal ownership across the nation.

One begins to wonder if these reporters are deliberately in step with the animal rightists' beliefs to the point that they are unwilling to acknowledge HSUS' insidious strategy to use lies and propaganda to pressure legitimate animal enterprise out of business.  I mean, you would have to be living under a rock to have never heard about any of the attacks that HSUS and other animal rights groups have made against the pet industry, horse industry, hunting, and animal agriculture, right?

In talking with one reporter from St. Louis, Missouri's KMOV Channel 4 this morning, I asked him how long he had been working as a reporter in Missouri.

He replied, "Several years."

I asked, "Were you working as a reporter in Missouri in 2010 during the campaign to defeat Proposition B -- also known as HSUS' Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act?"

The reporter replied, "Well... I was here working as a reporter in St. Louis, but I was covering things like drive by shootings, and fires."

One of the biggest election-year regulatory battles the state of Missouri has ever faced and this guy is telling me that he wasn't aware of it.  

Sorry, I don't buy it.

So, here was my response to Mr. KMOV Channel 4 reporter, and here is my rant to all the other reporters and journalists out there:

HSUS is not a credible source.  What they stated in their recent article about dog breeders is not factual and is not freedom of speech. This is slander. Repeating lies is the same as slander.  And by repeating the lies of HSUS, you are harming families and their businesses by not obtaining the facts.  

KMOV- St. Louis reporter then asked me for proof that HSUS is anti-animal agriculture and promotes veganism. 

In their own words, here are quotes from the leadership at HSUS which I shared with all reporters I spoke with today, courtesy of Humane Watch:

Fact: HSUS’s Food Policy Director Matt Prescott, a former PETA activist, created a national campaigncomparing farms to Nazi concentration camps. (See picture at right.) He has also written, “There’s never an excuse to kill and eat an animal.”

Fact: HSUS’s past farm-animal vice president Miyun Park told an animal rights conference, “We don’t want any of these animals to be raised and killed [for food]….And so because of that, a number of organizations including the Humane Society of the United States, we work on promoting veganism.”

Fact: HSUS’s current farm-animal vice president Paul Shapiro has said, “Eating meat causes animal cruelty” and “The meat industry equals systematic murder.”

Fact: After Wayne Pacelle, a strict vegan, became president of HSUS, he declared a new food policy making all HSUS events vegan—no meat or dairy or eggs, no matter how they are produced.

Fact: Wayne Pacelle has written that eating meat is “speciesist”—meaning animals are discriminated against, similar to racism or sexism.

Fact: HSUS has been secretly investing money in start-ups such as “Beyond Meat” and “Beyond Eggs”—businesses that hope to replace meat and egg products entirely.

Fact: Wayne Pacelle has said that PETA has “visionary and professional leadership. There’s no doubt they’re creative and courageous.” He also said, “PETA has really done so much in a short time to…promote animal rights.”

Fact: John “J.P.” Goodwin, an HSUS director of animal cruelty, has said, “My goal is the abolition of all animal agriculture.” Goodwin is a former spokesperson for the terrorist Animal Liberation Front.

The bottom line: HSUS is run by strict vegans who are only using smaller, organic farmers as a prop. These vegans are smart enough to know that 99% of the public eats animal products. So they provide lip service to small farmers for political and public-relations reasons to cloak their agenda.

My final note to reporters and so-called journalists in America:  HSUS doesn't care about people. And their mission has nothing to do with improving animal welfare. Maybe you should spend your time and efforts following the HSUS money trail. 

HSUS and their cohorts are determined to perpetuate propaganda and lies to smear legitimate animal-related businesses with the intent to bring an end to animal breeding, animal enterprise and, ultimately, animal ownership. 

Unless you check your facts, YOU and your news organizations are willing accomplices to the agenda of HSUS and their intent to harm. 

Rant over. 

Mindy Patterson, president, The Cavalry Group

   

USDA RELEASES PRIVATE INFORMATION OF DOG BREEDERS TO ASPCA

The contemporary “animal rights” movement and its various factions are not what they seem. For every legitimate concern, there are dozens of front groups operated and funded by extremists with radical agendas. For instance, over the past several years, the ASPCA, PETA, and HSUS have been waging a war against so-called “puppy mills.”  

They lead Americans to believe that their focus is on rogue, unscrupulous dog breeders, but in a recent interview, the ASPCA admitted that they consider even law-abiding dog breeders to be “puppy mills.” Animal rights activists hold the belief that bringing new, pure-bred dogs into existence is unethical so long as there are dogs in shelters.  Thus, they seek to put every law-abiding dog breeder permanently out of business by any means necessary.  

Their public relations war against dog breeding has raked in countless millions from unsuspecting donors who are unaware of the fact that almost none of this money actually goes to the care of dogs. The numbers of abused animals are inflated and exaggerated to the point where you would think that puppy mills were an epidemic. In reality, almost all dog breeders are hard-working, rural Americans, who take very good care of their animals.  

Recently, the activists have turned to a disturbing, new tactic of singling out individual breeders and publishing their names, their addresses, and photographs of their breeding establishments. Where do they obtain such information, one might ask? The answer: None other than our own government, courtesy of the United States Department of Agriculture.  

The USDA, once tasked with protecting American farmers and breeders, has crawled into bed with the most anti-farming elements of the Left. Despite the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) explicitly granting a protection through Exemption 6 for any personal information that can be linked to an individual, the USDA decided to respond the ASPCA’s FOIA request by handing over the personal information and inspection photos of dog breeders from all over the United States.

As part of the inspection process, the USDA takes these photographs of breeding facilities in order to ensure compliance. Many breeders report being told that these photos are to be used only for the purpose of inspection. Several contacted The Cavalry Group, an organization which defends the rights of animal owners, horrified to find pictures of their homes and businesses on the ASPCA website. Many of the photos were over 10 years old, and some included pictures of businesses that have changed owners. In several notable cases, the breeder in question had been deceased for many years.

The ASPCA wants people to believe that these photos depict a day-to-day reality of all dog breeding facilities. 

The photos, however, were taken out of context in order to support an exaggerated claim of widespread animal abuse and to renew calls for widespread regulation of the dog breeding industry. In reality, the breeding facility in question corrected any areas of non-compliance with the law shortly after the inspection. 

Yet today, their businesses are being perpetually smeared by an organization that seeks to bring about an end to pure-bred dogs in favor of adoption from shelters, all with the help of our own government.

The ASPCA is well within their rights to advocate for adoption, but using out of date information to smear the reputations of individual dog-breeders is going a step too far. Most importantly, the USDA should not be skirting FOIA exemptions in order to accommodate the agenda of radical activists. However, when the USDA is hijacked by these very same groups, we should not expect anything less. A once-sensible objective of animal welfare has been corrupted by today’s activists, who exploit government in order to put animals ahead of humans at any cost.

Read this article on Breitbart.com

Author, Phil Christofanelli is the Director of Public Affairs for The Cavalry Group, a member based company protecting and defending the Constitutional and private property rights of law abiding animal owners, animal-related business, hunters, and agriculture concerns legally nationwide.

That Which We Call A "Puppy Mill" By Any Other Name?

"What’s in a name?  That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet” This famous quote from Romeo and Juliet, the play written by William Shakespeare, encapsulates the tragedy that befalls dog breeders across America today which is, all in a name. 

All in a name, the term “puppy mill” was intentionally devised by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)  to empower their animal rights agenda and cause deliberate harm, and over time, dismantle the image and reputation of exceptional dog breeders while painting them with the broad brush of shame.

So, what exactly is a so-called, “puppy mill”?  

In 2010 as the campaign manager for The Alliance For Truth, a campaign to defeat HSUS’ “Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act” (Prop. B) in Missouri, I learned first hand that HSUS and their animal rights agenda promotes and capitalizes on the term “puppy mill” as a reference to ALL dog breeders. That’s right.  ALL dog breeders.  It was during the campaign to defeat Prop. B that I recall having to sit in a waiting area at a St. Louis TV station with our opposition's campaign manager, Barb Schmitz, before going on air.  When I asked her how she could possibly justify her claim that Missouri had 3,000 "puppy mills," she responded by telling me that all breeders are "puppy mills" and they must be closed down. 

So there in lies the deception to the American people.  HSUS is against breeding. Period. So any breeding facility, commercial or otherwise, is considered to be a “puppy mill” because of the emphasis on breeding and making a profit.  No matter how well the breeder cares for their dogs, HSUS doesn't want legitimate, lawful dog breeders making a living or any kind of a profit breeding dogs. So they vilify.

So while dog breeders jump through hoops to stay in business, it is impossible for them to keep up with all the onerous business killing regulations aggressively promoted by HSUS through lobbying, ballot initiatives, and infiltration into government agencies.  The fact of the matter is that the end goal is NOT about creating better welfare standards for breeding facilities -- it’s about eliminating the breeders. And that’s the animal rights agenda and goal: the elimination of animal ownership.

Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of HSUS illustrates this goal in his quote, “One generation and out. We have no problem with the extinction of domestic animals. They are creations of human selective breeding.” Wayne Pacelle, Animal People, May, 1993.

Those two little words “puppy mill” pack a punch, and they continue to destroy exceptional kennels across America by chipping away at the public’s view of dog breeding because, in the eyes of HSUS and other animal rights groups, ALL dog breeders are considered to be a “puppy mill”.  

This serves as an important reminder as HSUS is turning citizens into bounty hunters by offering a cash reward of $5,000 to terrorize and destroy dog breeders by making false accusations against their neighbors.  While they use the term "puppy mill" to describe their targets, what they really mean is any and all dog breeders, hobby and commercial breeders alike. 

Calling every dog breeder a “puppy mill” is like labeling every football coach a pedophile because of what happened at Penn State. Sadly, those of us who are involved in animal agriculture are going to be in a public relations battle to defend animal husbandry for the rest of our lives, so we must start by no longer referring to a substandard breeder as a “puppy mill.”  If we continue to use that term, we are perpetuating the false HSUS propaganda, and helping Pacelle and his minons drive all of us off the not so symbolic cliff.  

Mindy Patterson is president and co-founder of The Cavalry Group, a member based company legally defending & protecting the Constitutional and private property rights of law abiding animal owners & animal-related businesses nation-wide.