Less than a month ago, a longtime, respected, poodle breeder was raided by Animal Control and had her 34 dogs confiscated based on a claim of "unhealthy conditions of the living environment." Evidence indicates that this may not be the case and that she was targeted by animal rights activists, but true or not, it has resulted in comments like the one below.
"I don’t understand why anyone would have 34 dogs. One person really cannot manage that amount...I just think unless you have hired help and a place for your dogs 34 is way to many for me."
Who is to say how many is too many? Just because you or I may be unable to care for 34 dogs does not give us the right to make that decision for anyone else. The number owned has no bearing on the level of care. One animal can be too many for some people, and yet others can handle fifty just fine.
Despite this, several states are moving to pass legislation limiting the number of animals an individual may own. As I have just explained, the number is NOT the issue, nor is it any of our business, and unless there is concrete evidence of abuse and/or neglect, it’s none of the government’s business either. These ineffective, irrational and unfair laws are in fact, the result of pressure from radical animal rights groups such as the Humane Society of the United States, whose much larger agenda is to eliminate animals from our lives altogether.
Having said that, what bothers me most about comments like the one above is that they are made by those who are most active in the fight to save our pets from these fanatics - the same people who have been with me in Sacramento, trying to make our legislators understand the true goals of the animal rights movement. How can such well informed people then turn around and judge someone for having too many dogs? The bottom line is that the minute we make that statement, we’ve opened the way for a limit law.
By the way, years ago I saw a couple on the Phil Donahue show who owned 200 cats. They were retired and spent every minute and every dime they had on those cats. Vet bills, food bills, all of it. They’d roast entire turkeys for them. Those cats were the most loved, most well-treated cats I’ve ever seen. Who are we to say that they had too many? For them, it wasn’t too many.
Hey, I think five cars is too many for one person to take care of, but unless you’re parking them on my lawn, it’s none of my business. As long as cats and dogs are considered property under the U.S. Constitution, NO ONE has the right to tell anyone how many is too many. End of story.
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