“Animal Rights” activists out of control

I realize that some of you might ask “Why is this article relevant to FreedomWorks?” My response: Your freedom is under attack from every direction, not just from Congress or your governor or your city council.  It’s also under attack from a pervasive Nanny State mentality and the tendency of the media and the citizenry in general to give a free pass to unacceptable behavior and intrusiveness by activists for various causes/cults almost any time those activists claim to be acting with good intentions. It’s time for the nation to get some backbone and tell liberals that actions will not be judged primarily by their intent but rather by their effect, and that our default position is freedom.

In a remarkable story, the breeder who sold Joe Biden a German Shepherd puppy describes receiving death threats and being harassed by government officials once the public learned of Biden’s purchase. (Apparently Biden has received threats too.)

The people who sent threats should be jailed, as should the petty bureaucrat(s) who sent “dog wardens”, whom I presume to be the “pro-animal” gestapo, to the kennel if there is any evidence that the breeder, Linda Brown, is getting more regulatory “attention” than she otherwise would be simply because of her one famous customer. To be clear, it does seem that the breeder has not had a spotless record with the government or the AKC in the past, and I don’t presume that she’s doing everything perfectly.

Still, what is wrong with this country? Have we gotten so fat and happy, with so much leisure time, that the greatest thing we worry about is whether Barack Obama’s new dog comes from a shelter or a breeder? I mean, really, can you believe CNN ran a poll on that question?

Now that Obama did get a dog (not from a shelter, but not from a breeder either), isn’t it ridiculous that the article needs to tell us that they had “hoped to get a rescue dog?”

Listen… My brother was a passionate advocate of “animal welfare”. But he clearly understood that people are not second-class citizens in the food chain or any other chain, and he never would have been involved with threats of any sort of violence. I have had a chance, when my brother was still with us and through some of the work we’ve done through the foundation we set up in his memory, to meet quite a few “animal rights” enthusiasts and have yet to meet one who would think it’s OK to threaten violence (or death) against someone…much less to do so for something as harmless as selling a puppy. (Yes, I know PETA says it’s not harmless and expresses those views in extremely distasteful ways…which is why PETA will hopefully meet its own end one day soon.)

What a pathetic, self-indulgent, micro-managing bunch of nannies this nation’s “idealists” have become, particularly the left-wing youth who view anything done for profit or by a large company as inherently evil, and then wonder how it is they have food on their plates and shoes on their feet.

It’s time to stop giving them a pass just because they cloak their hatred with images of puppies and kittens. If we’re going to have (unconstitutional) hate crimes laws, let’s charge PETA and even more radical “animal defense” groups with them.

Yes, it’s a minor tragedy that there are so many nice cats and dogs that end up being killed because they’re unwanted or because humans didn’t neuter or spay those animals’ parents. But it is a minor tragedy. I wouldn’t trade one human life…or one human limb…for any number of thousands of those animals. And anyone who would should be severely and publicly punished.

I have two words for Joe Biden, and his perfectly acceptable decision to buy a puppy from a breeder: “Nice dog.”