tisdag 17 juni 2014

PeTA and killing healthy feral cats

This is a good article by my friend Colin Wright about PeTA and their promoting of killing healthy feral cats:
"On the subject of whether PETA is justified in their stance that all and feral cats should be rounded up and killed instead of using TNR (Trep-Neuter-Return) and all pitbulls should be killed:
I'm 41 years old and have been rescuing nonhuman animals for over 30 years now. For the past 3 years I've been "officially" rescuing, socializing, and re-homing stray and feral cats (I've been Vegan for a year btw). I currently have 15 in my rescue (my 2-room apt.) and my family has 6 more in the other section of our house (15 rooms in a broken down 130-year-old home in Ct.).
I don't hate any one person or any group of people. I try not to hate at all. I focus on love, kindness, compassion, and justice for all sentient beings.


However, there are some things I dislike very much about PETA.
PETA kills 85% of the HEALTHY animals that are surrendered to them (not euthanizes, that is a term that means killing only in the circumstances of catastrophic illness or injury). PETA's stance on pitbulls (as advanced by Ingrid Newkirk herself) is that they should all be killed, simply because they are "dangerous." Despite the fact that smaller dogs account for a larger protion of the attacks on humans each year.


Newkirk also believes that all healthy feral and stray cats should be rounded up and killed, "to prevent their future suffering."


In my work, I've had to release some cats back to where I trapped them. Believe me, it was not my first choice. If I could have found homes for every single animal, I would have gladly done whatever I could to see them safe and sound indoors for the rest of their lives. However, there are just not enough safe homes for animals around here as we would want. Not every cat, even with socialization (and I'm an expert on that) will tolerate staying inside for the rest of their lives, especially when they've lived most of it outside. It's a hell of a job trying to get most feral cats to even tolerate being touched, let alone being kept indoors 24/7.
Still, I managed to get at least 45 kittens and quite a few adult cats adopted out in the time I was most active in rescue. I TNRed many, MANY more.
Would it be better to put all the stray cats in homes? Of course. Are there some strays that will die a painful, slow or pointless death? That would be yes as well. But the truth is, many of those cats can live perfectly long, healthy lives if they are taken care of in feral colonies by responsible loving people. We need many, many more of those people.
Killing healthy animals by the thousands is not only not going to help this problem, but it will actually make it worse. Taking strays and feral cats out of their neighborhoods and killing them actually increases the number of cats in those neighborhoods, since the ones left behind will ramp up their reproductive cyles to fill the niche left by the missing cats. TNR actually halts that process and decreases the number of cats overall. I've personally seen this happen many times.
And killing them is incredibly immoral. Killing healthy animals is not the answer, no matter how you dress it up as "humane" or "painless." The truth is, nonhuman animals have a fundamental right to live out their lives free from the threat of being killed simply because we don't want to be responsible for their suffering. Guess what? We ARE responsible. We got them into this mess, and killing them is NOT the way to get them out. It makes MUCH more sense to give them moral justice and be compassionate at the same time.
True compassion means choosing to let healthy animals live their lives and face their end on their own terms, not arbitrarily choosing to end the lives of some because we can't find a better solution than to just destroy what we can't save. Justice is not always about reducing suffering. There IS a moral reason to allow nonhumans to remain outdoors, IF your only other option was to just kill them outright.


Newkirk and PETA also regularly praise the people who institutionally exploit animals so they can sell flesh, dairy, eggs and honey for their "Happy Meat" and "Humane Slaughter" programs.
All of the big "Animal Organizations" are corrupt and useless when it really comes to helping animals in any significant way. If you want to understand why, I have some info here:
http://legacyofpythagoras.wordpress.com/2014/06/17/welfare-watch-observing-the-moral-confusion-in-animal-welfare-and-single-issue-campaigns


We don't need PETA, HSUS, ASPCA, and all these huge, bloated, "Animal Charities" to save all the homeless cats and dogs, completely put an end to domestication, and help all the animals of the world. What we need is for me and you and everyone else to go Vegan, rescue/volunteer/adopt/foster/spay/neuter and educate others about these issues.
If you're not Vegan already, please go Vegan. It's easy and great for you, incredible for the animals, and wonderful for the planet. If your animal companion is not Vegan, please check out the links in the post below and then make them Vegan (if possible and practical):
http://legacyofpythagoras.wordpress.com/2014/06/13/the-issue-of-domestication-and-companion-animals


The above is an article by Colin Wright.

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