Be Afraid, Chicago Dog

Be Afraid Enough To Get Angry And Act

• In Today’s Chicago Sun-Times, an article quoted the sponsor of a spay and neuter mandate as saying that the ordinance is a done deal. Alderman Edward Burke, who is the most powerful member of City Council, told a reporter that he has lined up the 26 votes required to pass the ordinance. Read the article yourself: http://www.suntimes.com/news/cityhall/1467698,chicago-dog-cat-spay-neuter-030909.article

• As you are reading this, the radical Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has three full-time lobbyists pounding City Hall to talk to each alderman individually. Dog owners have none. We are a rag-tag collection of citizen volunteers who need your help if we are to defeat the wealthy and powerful HSUS freight train.

• You are up against the most politically powerful elected official in Chicago. Alderman Burke pulls all the financial strings on Council, and few measures can survive without his agreement. Almost every alderman owes Burke a long list of favors. Burke has a string around the testicles of half the people in city government.

• You also are up against arguably the most power behind-the-scenes political powerbroker in Chicago, if not Illinois. Paula Faseas is a radical animal rights activist who is married to HSUS both ideologically and politically. She also pulls the strings for major political contributions for many Chicago and Chicagoland candidates. Faseas is the juice. She makes them or breaks them. She holds the other end of Burke’s string.

• At the last hearing, only about 50 dog owners bothered to show up to fight for our rights. That’s pathetic. In contrast, about 100 animal rights fanatics showed up to try to take away our rights. It will be a slaughter if those numbers are repeated at Thursday’s hearing. Blame yourself. No one can fight your battles for you.

• The Chicago animal control program is being deliberately set up for failure, so that animal rights groups can press for even tougher laws against dog owners in the near future. Look what is happening to dog license sales and revenues. In  2007, licenses were sold for 20,558 animals for revenues of $195,358.  In 2008, these numbers dropped to 11,263 animals and revenues of $104,292. From the number of dogs in Chicago, which is estimated to be at least 350,000, revenues should be several million dollars a year. If the licensing ordinance is enforced, revenues would  completely cover the cost of enforcing other animal control ordinances.

• Dog shows and dog events will be destroyed in Chicago, and you will become a virtual prisoner to the fruits of your apathy. Attendance will immediately begin to plummet, and boycotts will force major shows and events to leave the city. That is exactly what animal rights groups want, and they could care less if it will cost Chicago businesses millions of dollars in lost revenues and dozens of lost job.

• The dogs that you love will get sick and die and die at an early age because of the proven medical consequences of spaying or neutering at six months of age. Many serious and potentially fatal medical conditions will result, including some forms of cancer. In addition, there will be an increased likelihood that your dogs will bite, become aggressive or have serious temperament problems because of sterilization, the most recent research shows.

• You will give up the basic right to own your pet and make important decisions about it. The ordinance specifically defines having a dog or cat as a “privilege” granted by government. You will be turned into a guardian of your dog, as if it is a human child. Your dog will become, in essence, a ward of the state, and government will usurp the power to take total control of it. You also will be giving government the power to seize, confiscate and euthanize your beloved pet without cause.

• You will allow government to make you pay for problems you didn’t create, and set a precedent toward turning yourself into a sacrificial lamb to the animal rights demagogues and anyone else who thinks they should have the power to tell you who to be and how to live. You will give government the power to investigate you, search your home and force you to dance to its drum.