Dog owners might be in for another bashing on Friday, when ultra-liberal
talk show host Oprah Winfrey does a special program on "puppy mills."
Winfrey's star reporter, Lisa Ling, went undercover in commercial breeding
kennels to do an expose on the pet store trade.
Although the commercial trade in pet store puppies has nothing to do with
the vast majority of dog owners and breeders, sensationalistic news coverage
tars us with the same brush. To the liberal animal rights mindset, all
breeders are either "puppy mills" or "backyard breeders," and this always
translates into more laws that harm only the innocent. Moreover, the hidden
agenda of the animal rights movement is the ultimate elimination of animal
ownership, and their strategy is to pick us off one group at a time.
The American Sporting Dog Alliance (ASDA) does not know how Winfrey and Ling
will approach the topic, but we are not optimistic that it will be a fair,
balanced and reasonably objective report. Based on the normal biased
reporting we see about dog breeding, and Winfrey's close personal ties with
animal rights groups, we would expect them to take their cameras into a
couple of "worst case" kennels, and then by inference say or imply that all
kennels and breeders are bad.
Expect to take a thumping from one of the wealthiest and most powerful
animal rights activists on Earth. According to a report in Women's Day
magazine, billionaire Winfrey feels that leaving a cool $30 million to her
own five dogs in her will is not even slightly extravagant. Inflation, you
know.
Winfrey was partners with the radical Humane Society of the United States in
a movement aimed at destroying cattle ranching because of alleged food
safety issues from eating beef, and they were codefendants in a lawsuit
brought by the industry.
On Friday, we can expect a thumping with no opportunity to defend ourselves.
The Winfrey/Ling style of journalism is to exploit highly emotional topics
and sensationalize them to twang the heartstrings of a predominantly middle
class audience of liberals who are looking for the next "do-gooder" cause to
embrace. It looks like saving the whales or feeding starving people in
Somalia aren't fashionable this year. Pity the poor whales. Pity the poor
Somali refugees.
And pity the poor dog owners! A campaign against dog owners and breeders has
become the latest fashionable cause for the glitz and glitter crowd of
celebrities.
The question is, what are we going to do about it?
For myself, I'm just plain sick and tired of being unfairly bashed. I guess
I just wasn't raised to be a punching bag.
But, you might be asking, how can we fight back against the wealthiest and
most powerful media mogul in America? How can we fight that kind of power?
How can we fight someone who wills $30 million to her dogs when we're trying
to figure out how to pay last month's electric bill?
I think we can do it, if we get off of our butts and actually do it. There
are hundreds of thousands of people who breed dogs because they love them -
show dogs, performing dogs, hunting dogs, obedience dogs, field trial dogs,
companion dogs and just plain dogs. In addition, there are millions of dog
owners who love their animals and thank breeders for doing the fine job that
they know we do in improving temperament, genetic soundness, utility, beauty
and health.
If we join together in this, we can be a formidable force.
My thoughts are that a boycott of Winfrey's advertisers would be the most
effective strategy. If several hundred thousand dog owners and breeders were
to contact advertisers on the Oprah show and refuse to buy any of their
products, they would be forced to take notice.
Please understand that I am not talking about censoring Winfrey's opinions.
I would fight for her right to express any opinion she chooses, and also for
her right to present and endorse the views of animal rights groups on her
program.
However, journalistic ethics demands fairness, balance and objectivity if
programming purports to be reporting the news. If Oprah wants to do a report
on dog breeding, that's fine. But the report should be fair to us and give
us the opportunity to balance the views of the animal rights groups with our
side of the story.
I don't expect that Oprah will hold to the same standard of ethics that I
did as a newspaper reporter. I expect that her report will be a hatchet job
on dog owners and breeders. The promotional clip for Friday's Oprah Show
gives us an idea of what we can expect:
http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200804/tows_past_20080404.jhtml
A boycott of advertisers just might convince Oprah to undergo an ethical
reformation. Most of her advertisers won't like the idea of losing several
hundred thousand customers so that Oprah can preach sermons against dog
owners and breeders.
When I worked on newspapers, there was a cynical wisecrack that my bosses
sometimes told me when they didn't like something I wrote. "There is freedom
of the press in America - for anyone who owns a press." That meant I didn't
own the press.
It takes a lot of money to own a TV show. Oprah has that kind of money, and
she earned it, but it has gone to her head. Now she sneers at the rights and
lives of ordinary people who made her a pop star, and that includes dog
owners and breeders.
The Internet is the great equalizer. One of the beauties of the Internet is
that it allows everyone to truly have the rights of free speech and free
press. The Internet has become the printing press of ordinary people, and
now it reaches a reported 80-percent of American households.
Television represents the past, when Oprah's kind of money and power
controlled the right of a free press. The Internet has given us our voice.
The American Sporting Dog Alliance is asking all dog owners and breeders to
watch the Oprah Show on Friday and form your own opinions. Then, if she does
the kind of hatchet job we expect, please bombard her with emails expressing
your displeasure.
Then, we need to get organized for a campaign to reach her advertisers. In
order to get ready, ASDA is asking readers of this report to email us a list
of every advertiser that supports the Oprah Show. ASDA is willing to
organize this campaign. Also, please let us know if you are able to help
with it. Our email address is
asda@csonline.net.
The American Sporting Dog Alliance works at the grassroots to defend the
rights of dog owners and professionals against the very real threats of
animal rights activism. Please visit us on the web at
http://www.americansportingdogalliance.org. We maintain strict independence
and are supported only by the voluntary donations of our members.
While the Oprah segment may be about "puppy mills," the laws that her
friends in PETA and HSUS are proposing really are targeting dog owners and
hobby breeders, with the goal of reducing and ultimately eliminating animal
ownership.
"Puppy mills" are not the issue. Existing federal, state and animal cruelty
laws already intensively regulate commercial kennels. You are the issue.
These groups want to destroy the things that you love and believe in.
Does Oprah have a conscience? She is leaving $30 million to support five
dogs that she loves and apparently believes she is doing something right by
supporting animal rights groups.
But is she is being suckered? She is supporting groups that believe that the
only unexploited dog is a dead dog. The truth is that PETA slaughters
97-percent of the dogs that enter the organization's "shelter" in Virginia.
They would rather kill those dogs than help them find a loving home.(cut)
Re: Oprah episode on Puppy Mills
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Re: Oprah episode on Puppy Mills
) are subjects that are fine to discuss here.
Re: Oprah episode on Puppy Mills
One comment that did kind of stick in my craw was when they seemed surprised the Amish considered themselves the owners/masters(I can't remember the word they used) of dogs, a concept I tend to agree with. Edit to add, although I certainly don't agree with the way these puppy mills treated their dogs.
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