BREEDERS IN HIDING

Tam Cordingley, CSI Instructor, SAAB Member

Here's a legislative, legal, effective solution to being victimized by animal rights legislation and dog limit laws. It exposes local politicians and power-crazed Animal Control.

I've had an epiphany; how dog breeders should deal with Animal Rights! Rather than expressing outrage, which would make anyone feel better but probably do no real good, why don't we all collectively come out of the closet? For the last 20 years we have been hiding from the local authorities, being quiet because we were afraid of persecution and/or prosecution, keeping quiet so we wouldn't have trouble.

In many localities there are strict dog limits, yet fanciers are keeping well over the limit and not getting caught. This alone is absolute proof that multi dog owners are not the ones causing the problems; if we were then we would have been discovered and the law would have been at our door.

We are the ones that know how to manage dogs. Why do we allow ourselves to be criminalized by people who know nothing? The Animal Rights and those they have brainwashed only think in terms of spay and neuter, never in terms of management. Instead of cowering and hiding, only putting out pairs of look alike dogs, why don't we go public?

Breeders and exhibitors bring huge amounts of money into the communities. Show people stay in hotels, they eat out, shop, and sightsee. Comparatively, dog show people bring big money into towns that have no tourism or attractions other than a great place to hold a dog show. Dog owners spend over $40 BILLION on our pets every year. We are the ones who vaccinate, screen prospective homes, keep all our dogs fenced and some of us build palace-like kennels (more money pumped into local economy), yet we are the ones criminalized by the "animal rights" crowd and even my our own elected officials!

Well there's enough of us to vote them out of office and run the animal rights activists right out of our state - if we go public, if we network with each other, if we stand up and fight for the right to own multiple pets of the breed and species we choose.

What is the worst that can happen? The worst is that they will take our dogs. Think about that. If they are all of a sudden made privy to the fact that there are 100 owners with 1000 dogs in violation of the dog limit law, what are they to do? They can't confiscate 1000 dogs knowing there will be litigation. They would have to hold them as "evidence" until decided by the courts. They can't destroy them unless we surrender them. Keeping over the legal limit is not a felony in most places, which means the penalties are not horrible.

Think about this - They turn out rapists and murderers because there is not time in the courts nor space in the jails to hold them. What do you think the judges would say if they were presented with 100 or more "over the dog limit" cases?

This has happened to me, over 30 years ago in California. I was cited for over the dog limit, and refused to destroy dogs or surrender them to the authorities. We went to court and I demanded a jury. There was testimony that I had too many dogs.

True, I did, all fenced, in at night, legally vaccinated. This was countered by cross examination of my neighbors about fencing, threats by my dogs of any person or dog, noise or odor problems, all responses were negative. It was thrown out of court by the judge and jury as a frivolous waste of the court's time. I continued to live in that county, with over double the legal number of dogs, for an additional 5 years with no further encounters with Animal Control.

Another thing that would take the heat off many of the fanciers who are over the limit simply because they refuse to put down older dogs is to not count those that are over 7 years old or spayed. We could keep our retirees and still continue our hobby.

I read an interesting thing on the Mo. Pet Breeders Site. They gate their property, post No Trespassing signs, require a sign in sheet before anyone looks at the dogs, and if intruded upon, they demand a warrant. Unless there is some pretty serious violation of cruelty or welfare statutes it is not easy to get a warrant just to have a look see. We have been rolling over for years. Just like the omega dog, if we continue to meekly take it this abuse will continue.

This is not to say we should make ourselves obnoxious and confront everyone, therefore cementing the fact in animal control minds that we are kooks. We need to be careful and be correct, but mindful of the fact that we are the ones who know how to manage dogs. We need to vaccinate and have that documentation available if challenged, we need to fence, we need to be careful not to create a nuisance with noise, flies, or odor, we need to be above reproach. It is not numbers, it is not breeding status, it is management.

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