FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Animal rights idealists have the perfect recipe for rabies epidemic 

Animal rights idealists have the perfect recipe for rabies epidemic 

Re: “Clearing up a misconception about PETA and pets”, Have Your Say, yesterday.

According to Eric Bahrt I am a liar for claiming that PETA wants to take our pets away. But of course I didn’t say that; Eric is up to his usual tricks. In fact I stated that PETA wants to end pet ownership, as a few selected quotes by Ingrid Newkirk, one of the founders of PETA, will confirm. This lady has in the past stated that pet ownership is slavery, that eventually “companion animals” (her preferred term for pets) would be phased out, and that dogs would pursue their natural lives in the wild. Newkirk does not seem to suggest, and nor did I, that hordes of PETA operatives would be swooping down upon us and liberating our pooches from their domesticated hell, but the ultimate aim of PETA seems clear enough.
I was particularly struck by Newkirk’s hope that dogs would return to the wild. Except that they wouldn’t, would they? They would be roaming the city streets scavenging for food, making a nuisance of themselves and infecting us with rabies. The Soi Dog Foundation would be overwhelmed. This is what sometimes happens with “single issue” pressure groups: their original intentions are often commendable, but in time folks get carried away and end up with extreme views which are detached from reality.
Robin Grant
Bangkok

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