A soi dog’s life
Re: “Animal rights idealists have the perfect recipe for rabies epidemic”, Have Your Say, yesterday.
Robin Grant makes a lot of statements about PETA. The guy clearly has an anti-PETA agenda. A quick search on his claim that Ingrid Newkirk has said pet ownership should be phased out reveals Mr Grant is grossly manipulating what she said.
This is the quote: “I don’t use the word ‘pet’. I think it’s species-ist language. I prefer ‘companion animal’. For one thing, we would no longer allow breeding. People could not create different breeds. There would be no pet shops. If people had companion animals in their homes, those animals would have to be refugees from the animal shelters and the streets. You would have a protective relationship with them just as you would with an orphaned child. But as the surplus of cats and dogs (artificially engineered by centuries of forced breeding) declined, eventually companion animals would be phased out, and we would return to a more symbiotic relationship – enjoyment at a distance.” (“The Harper’s Forum Book, Jack Hitt, ed, 1989, p 223.)
Even the most intellectually challenged person would realise that the process of being “phased out” as it relates to pets would take a very long time. For some reason Grant references the excellent organisation Soi Dog Foundation. Soi Dog does amazing work with domesticated street animals.
Remember that humans domesticated dogs and cats, and therefore we are duty-bound to assist them whether you like it or not. The fact many are now on the street is usually due to them being discarded by their owners. (The words I would use to describe this sub-human species are unprintable.) Soi Dog sterilise every dog and cat they treat as they recognise the overpopulation problem. This is essentially what PETA is advocating, and yes, eventually the species will end, but not for many, many years. In the meantime uneducated individuals like Grant should try to understand the plight of domesticated street animals and show some compassion. Manipulating the words of organisations that are attempting to resolve this plight does no service to any party.
Darren Blakeley
