What Can You Do If Spay/Neuter
Mandate Comes To Your Town?

(A dlb abbreviated article originally written by the late John Yates of American Sporting Dog Alliance)

Six Absolute Rules
Here are six absolute rules that I have learned from 20 years of journalism, and an equal amount of time as an activist on animal and constitutional issues:

a.. You have to do it yourself. No one else will do it for you.


a..Local officials care only about one group of people: Local residents. They care about the people they represent and serve, and they couldn't care less about outsiders.

a.. To bring people together, you must completely set aside your personal insecurities and biases about race, ethnic heritage and economic status. Every dog owner in your community is in this together. If you don't hang together, you will hang separately. There is no room for elitism of any kind when an animal rights ordinance is introduced.


a.. You need friends - lots of friends. That means that people who actually live in your community must show support, even if the issue doesn't directly affect them. You need local veterinarians and the owners of local feed and pet stores. You need local businesses that rely on people who travel with pets. You need people who love freedom, and know that an attack on your freedom paves the way for an attack on their own.


a.. Some of the best friends you can have are local and statewide organizations for sportsmen and firearms owners, even if you don't hunt and won't own a gun. Sportsmen understand the real agenda of animal rights groups, and gun owners understand the link between animal rights and gun control.


a.. And you should always take the high road. There is no substitute for honesty and integrity. Always speak the truth. Never resort to dirty tricks. If you stay on the ethical high ground, you will quickly set yourselves apart from the animal rights groups, which rely on lies, distortions, secrecy and innuendos. Many political battles are won by the side that displays the most credibility, and credibility is based on honesty and integrity.


If you keep those six absolute rules firmly in mind, you are well on your way to protecting your rights as dog owners in your community. In every community in America where animal rights groups have won a political battle, dog owners have broken one or more of those rules.

What To Do?


Given those rules, what should you do?

The first step is to reach out to other local dog owners, both to inform them and also to ask for their assistance. Here's how:

a.. Call everyone you know who owns a dog, used to own a dog, or who hunts, fishes or owns firearms. Specifically ask them to help, ask them what they are willing to do, and write it down. Don't be shy. Get on the phone and burn leather.


a.. Search the Yellow Pages and Internet for local kennels, breeders, clubs and pet services. Contact them.


a.. When you get a few good people committed, organize a local dog owners association. It doesn't have to be formal or highly organized. You don't have to incorporate or become a non-profit. This is still America, and citizens have a right to form and participate in political groups. Just do it, and do it now.


a.. Create a website for your association with one of the free services, such as Yahoo Geocities or Bravenet. On the website, describe the organization, write about what is happening, and add a blog or message board for breaking news. Get a free email address from Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail or other services. Use it.


a.. Publicize your website by posting short articles on Internet message boards that cover your area, dogs, hunting and guns. Ask people who read these message boards to pass the word along to their friends who live in or near your community, and to crosspost your announcement on other boards.


a.. Get the word out in the community. Create simple posters with contact information. Don't be shy about asking for help or asking people to contact your organization. Hang posters in stores and veterinarians' offices. Hang them in every part of town, and in every neighborhood. Post them on laundromat and grocery store bulletin boards, in union halls and fraternal organizations, and in churches and libraries.

a.. Pass the hat (or dig into your own wallet) and run inexpensive classified ads in your local newspaper or swap sheet. Ads in the pets or announcements sections are appropriate. See if your community has an online classifieds board, and use it. Many are free.


a.. Support and work with a national and/or statewide dog owners' rights organization. Most importantly, ask them to help you. Consider these organizations as valuable resources to support you. Good organizations exist for the sole purpose of helping you.


a.. Look specifically for local veterinarians and attorneys, especially if they own or raise dogs. Ask veterinarians to write letters opposing the proposed ordinance. Ask attorneys to offer their services without charge to review the legality of the ordinance. Remember that pet owners pour a lot of money into local businesses.  For tourists, it is important to have the image of being a "pet-friendly" community.


a.. An important tool is the simple fact that a large majority of residents of your community will be on your side. Your task is to prove it.

a.. And your most important weapon is the truth. The animal rights groups will lie through their teeth to paint a false picture of a community crisis. You must respond with the truth, and have the facts and figures to back it up.

If you follow those steps, you will develop a core group of activists and a list of hundreds if not thousands of local people who are on your side.

What You'll Face

The animal rights groups will have laid the foundation for a destructive ordinance long before you ever know about it. They won't play fair. They won't tell the truth.

Here is what to do:

· Most likely, your community's animal rights activists will assemble around an existing organization. Many of them also will have ties to national groups, such as HSUS, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and radical vegan vegetarian groups. You must learn the identities of local animal rights activists, research their ties to national groups, and then learn about the agenda of those groups. Don't avoid these people. Meet them. Introduce yourself. Flat out ask them their beliefs and affiliations with animal rights groups.

 

· The essence of all animal rights legislation is making innocent and law-abiding animal owners pay for the sins of the tiny minority of people who flaunt the law. Their goal is to make it difficult for you to continue to raise or own dogs. You must answer with the facts, showing how existing laws and appropriate enforcement of those laws actually will solve whatever problems your community may be experiencing.

· They will not fight fair.

· They will lie.

· They will say awful things about you.

· Never forget the real agenda of the animal rights groups, which is to eventually eliminate all animal ownership. Stand up for American values, including the right to honorably seek profit. Learn the law and educate local elected officials.

Divide and Conquer


A favorite tactic of animal rights activists is to divide dog owners so that we won't or can;t stand up and fight for each other's rights. Unfortunately, many dog owners play right into their hands through a misguided sense of elitism.

Animal rights groups will attempt to exploit racial, ethnic, cultural and economic differences and insecurities, which keeps us separated or squabbling.

There is no such thing as compromise with animal rights groups, because everything they stand for requires us to make all of the sacrifices, in order to give them what they want. They have nothing to exchange.

A true compromise is when both sides give up something in order to gain more important things. Animal rights groups have nothing to trade except the gun pointed at your head.

If we unite, we can defeat the animal rights extremists. If we fail to unite, we will lose.

An important part of the strategy that dog owners must learn to use is to be able to state clearly and categorically that we are the mainstream of America.

A reported 37-percent of American households own at least one dog. National polls from mainstream publications, such as Parade Magazine and MSN/NBC news, show that the vast majority of the American people oppose spay/neuter mandates. Opposition was at 91-percent in the recent Parade poll, for example.

Animal rights groups are the real minority, representing less than five percent of any community, and probably less than one percent in most places. But they are organized and vocal, and they turn out in droves for meetings before elected officials. This has given them the appearance of being a large segment of the community, when that is purely an illusion.

That's why local dog owners must organized and get a large turnout of their supporters at municipal meetings.

We are the mainstream. Animal rights groups are the radical fringe.

Elected officials need to know this.

So do news reporters.

This was a dlb abbreviation of an article written by the late John Yates. Rest in peace olde friend.

------------ --------- --------- ---------