Britain, meanwhile, restricts sources of pets
I am keeping an open mind as to whether this letter is a “tongue-in-cheek” response to the recent exchange of views in Have Your Say on pet ownership, or whether the writer is serious. If it’s the latter, then a course of psychiatric treatment might be a good idea.
It had been my intention to move on from this pointless debate. But I thought it would be worthwhile to mention that the UK government has announced that, as of October, pet shops and what are referred to as “third parties” will no longer be allowed to sell puppies or, I suppose, fully grown dogs, and presumably no cats either. Pets will only be purchased from registered dog breeders or from approved animal shelters.
This legislation, which hopefully one day will be introduced here in Thailand, is intended to eliminate the “puppy farms” that operate outside the law and should ensure higher standards of animal welfare. However, it will probably not satisfy the fanatics in “animal rights” organisations such as PETA, who are calling for the abolition of pet shops and all animal breeding and eventually, although they won’t openly admit it, an end to the practice of keeping pets.
So, we pet owners must remain on our guard against PETA’s predatory, prowling, pet-purloining partisans, who believe that our pampered pooches would really be better off “pursuing their natural lives in the wild”, according to PETA president Ingrid Newkirk.
What she means by “the wild” and how she imagines dogs would get there I do not know. Maybe they will, by natural instinct, gravitate towards tracts of forest and jungle and live out their lives in such sylvan surroundings, paying no attention to the people in the surrounding areas.
Not convinced? No, me neither.
Robin Grant
