http://www.kennelspotlight.com/THEY_...K_SWAHILLI.pdf
First off here is the link to the article. It is pretty long so I would like to cut and post a few of the more eye opening comments written. I am sitting here with my mouth hanging open after reading this!
They call anyone that is an Animal advocate a
Humaniacs
“Puppy Hell”, written by Mary Van de Kamp Nohl. This article
appeared in the Milwaukee Magazine [
Milwaukee Magazine: Best in Milwaukee & Wisconsin - Restaurant, Events, Doctors and More and click on
puppy hell] and featured Wallace Havens, starting with his early history, following him
through to his establishing himself as “the father of the designer dogs”. His Puggles breed
is his chief claim to fame, landing him in the eye of Marie Claire Magazine, The Wall
Street Journal, [front page], and the New York Times Magazine plus an appearance on
CBS “Sunday Morning”. He is a past board member of NAPO and an outstanding credit
to the High Volume breeder community. OR, Or, as Ms Nohl would have you believe,
and she has done an excellent job of presenting her list of facts to supplement her
argument, Mr. Havens is the devil reincarnate. She criticizes almost everything about the
man. His kennels are better than most of us but not good enough for her. His care for his
animals is better than any humane shelter, but not good enough for her. He is willing to
help any breeder to better their operation, even to founding the breeder club in
Wisconsin, but therein lies a fault in her eyes. He is helping the kennel industry grow and
is upgrading those he comes in contact with so as to better fight adverse legislation.
She is also very much annoyed with the Amish and Mennonite people who have moved
into Wisconsin to escape the harsh laws handed down by Governor Ed Rendell of
Pennsylvania. Do not forget that name. He is your enemy. He owns two dogs making him
twice as knowledgeable as ex-Senator Rick Santorium, co-sponsor of the PAWS bill
which was defeated a few years ago, but is now being re-introduced as the PUPS bill by
Illinois Senator Dick Durbin. Are you not glad we have all these experts telling us how to
run our business? It would seem that these Lancaster County transplants do everything
wrong. It seem these gentle men of the soil, whose heritage goes back several hundreds
of years of working with animals must consider the dog an animal and not a pet and
therefore obviously they are not qualified to raise dogs in Wisconsin without the help of
the Wisconsin State Legislature, who needs to be advised by Ms Nohl and her Humaniac
friends.
And so, we now get to the crux of the story. We do not speak the same language. We
speak agriculture. They speak humaniac!! Their definition of animal cruelty is based on
“Where would mama’s little snookums like to sleep tonight, with mama in her bed or on
the expensive feather pillow in snookums bed?” Our definition is based on adequate food,
water, and shelter in a kennel with 100 to 1000 dogs. Their thoughts are that every dog
needs picked up and kissed, half the time in the mouth. Usually right after they just licked
their butt or ate their pen mates poop. An animal rights judge in New York once ruled
that a dog was not an animal, he was a companion.
Now, I love dogs, BUT they are not equal to my grandchildren. My dog sleeps on a
pillow in the garage. Dogs are my animal of choice, but they were not superior to my
cows, horses, or pigs. I felt the same conviction to care for all my animals equally. I went
to Cal Poly to earn a B.S. degree in Animal Husbandry. There I was taught to produce
food for Americas table, as economically as possible. I was offered a job by the
Argentina Dept. of Agriculture to use that knowledge to help them to also use American
technology to streamline their methods of production. The things I learned and did under
the guidance of the instructors at the university would land me in jail under the new
definition of “animal abuse”. I learned to rope a calf, tie it, brand it, castrate it, dehorn it,
vaccinate it, delouse it, untie it and watch it run back to it’s mother in less than 5 minutes.
I learned to catch pigs, stick them head down into a funnel and castrate them, notch their
ears according to the formula for identification, snip their baby teeth and cut their tails,
all in one smooth, fast, and economical operation. I learned to debeak chickens, butcher
turkeys, break horses, etc. etc. and I used all of these skills when making my living in
farming. I used various skills from my animal husbandry classes to raise dogs. To me, the
dogs had it made compared to other farm animals.
So, please excuse me if I do not spend much time worrying about mama’s little baby and
where it wants to sleep. A dog is a dog, that’s an animal. He is entitled to basic care of
medicine, food, and shelter. Whatever other special entitlements you wish to heap upon
him is your privilege, but I want you to quit trying to shove your ideas of humane care
down my throat.
*There is more to this article but this alone is enough to make we want to hit someone!
