Regulating Animal Cruelty

Animal rights people are crazy. Not only do they value animals more than people, but they seem to truly disdain human beings. Moreover, they are ignorant and foolish, they know little about the things they advocate, and the rules they propose typically make little sense and are usually more destructive than they are helpful. But before we dismiss them entirely, let’s recognize that sometimes they have a point. And if we dismiss those points out of hand, it will hurt our side. What I’m thinking of today, in particular, are puppy mills.

I think we can all agree that there is simply no justification for cruelty or allowing cruelty. Where the problem arises in this debate is defining what constitutes cruelty. Indeed, that is where the animal rights people lose most everyone. Many of them argue that eating meat is cruelty, or that pet ownership is cruelty. Do I buy that? No, not in the least, and few others do either.

But we make a mistake if we dismiss this entire cause just because of the extreme position taken by the few. In fact, most people care a great deal about animals, and I'm seeing more and more people who want to stop "animal cruelty." But can we define cruelty? I think so, but only if we talk about it rationally and we ignore the people on either extreme of this issue.

I would say, for example, the needless infliction of pain is cruel. Torture and maiming are cruel as well. But does this actually happen? Well, that's a trick question. If it doesn't, then there's no reason not to ban it. If it does, then it should be stopped. So does it actually happen or am I just talking about theory here? It does. Let's talk about puppy mills.

What is a puppy mill? A puppy mill is a place where dogs are bred en masse. There are about 4000 puppy mills in the US, turning out half a million dogs a year. Here are some common features of these puppy mills:

• The dogs tend to live their entire lives in cages that are not much larger than the dog. They literally stand, sit and sleep on wire their entire lives.

• They receive no medical care or any sort.

• They are forcibly bred to have as many litters as possible, beginning from puppihood until they simply can’t produce any more pups. Usually, they are impregnated every time they go into heat.

• When they can no longer breed, they are killed, usually by shooting or downing.

• What’s more, many of these dogs are tortured or abused in the extreme. Some have their vocal chords cut. Some lose eyes. Their teeth rot out of their mouths. They are beaten. Most are malnourished, as they are fed sawdust along with their dog food. Some are found with metal collars that have grown into their necks because they were put on as puppies and were never removed as the dog grew.

And these are common occurrences, not random occurrences that are being exploited for political reasons. In fact, I have seen dozens of these dogs, many missing eyes or with other untreated wounds. Our family recently bought a dog from a puppy mill rescue. The dog we got has yet to make a noise, we think she can’t. Her rear legs were broken at some point and no treatment was provided. She will not take food from a human, indeed most won’t, as that is how they were tricked out of their cages originally. She fears humans more than any creature I have ever seen in the wild.

But these puppy mills continue in numerous states. Our dog came from Arkansas, which is one of the big five states where these mills are concentrated. The others are Pennsylvania, Kansas, Nebraska and Missouri, though they are in other states as well. The Amish, apparently, are heavily into this.

Since 2008, thirteen states have passed laws limiting some of the worst abuses.

This is the sort of thing that requires regulation; there is no free market solution to this. From a producer perspective, there is no reason for them not to be cruel, i.e. it doesn't hurt the value they get out of the dog. To the producers, the only value these dogs have is turning out puppies, anything they do for the dogs beyond simple ownership merely reduces their profit. The "employees" can't change this industry either. Most of these operations are family run, and the dogs can't strike. Nor can better competitors drive the bad guys out of business because no one can produce dogs cheaper. Consumers are no help either. People don’t like these practices once they learn about them, but there are too many consumers who know nothing about this. Indeed, every year, millions of people buy their first dogs, completely unaware of what is going on. And while reputable pet stores will no longer sell such animals, some stores will, and most of these dogs get sold through the newspaper or the internet -- where they are indistinguishable from private sellers.

Unfortunately, too many on the right dismiss the idea of regulation because they don’t like what the animal rights people are saying. But this is a huge mistake.

If our side can’t see that regulation is needed in this instance, then why should anyone trust us when it’s a closer call? And if we don’t gain the public’s trust on these issues, then the public will turn to the only people who are fighting these problems -- the whackos. That’s what’s happening in placed like California and Colorado, where the right refuses to talk about regulating animal sellers and the livestock industry and has, thereby, abandoned the field to the left. . . which has gone way overboard.

This is one of those issue where we should think about taking the lead, because regulation is coming and it should be done right.