No One Under the Bus

Owners of so-called traditional pets have always been able to count on owners of exotic animals to support the right to own those so-called traditional pets. Owners of exotics have not always received the same courtesy. A lot of owners of dogs and horses say "Why would you want to own a snake? Why would you want to own a tiger?" Don't you know those animals can kill you?!" As if horses and dogs can't and don't.

There is poetic justice in the fact that owners of traditional pets are suffering in the hands of the people that they have empowered to attack the owners of so-called exotics like lions and tigers. Some really infamous stories are coming from Florida about the mistreatment of dog breeders and owners by animal control there. Florida is a state where a small board is allowed to decide that people may no longer own their pet lions, snakes, or anything else, even though that board is commissioned to protect native wildlife, not people's pets.

Iowa is going through some really hard times for the same reason. The activists got the power when they went after exotic animal owners. Now they are the ones punishing people who own dogs and horses, which is what they intended to do in the first place. Anyone who has any familiarity with them at all knows about the Wayne Pacelle quotes like "one generation and out." There are other famous quotes from activists including the one about not wanting to see another dog or cat born and Bruce Friederich's wanting McDonald's to explode because they serve meat.

It is poetic justice. Poetic justice is the kind of retribution that people bring on themselves, arrange for themselves, and provide the power and money for. Owners of traditional pets in several places around the world have arranged the loss of their own rights by what they think of as a circuitous route. They gave up the opportunity to stop the activists. They took away a lot of the motivation that owners of foxes, bears, lions, and tigers had and practically all of their power. They stripped themselves of their allies and of a buffer between them and the activists. They took away from good people animals that were very special to them. In every way they made the actions of the activists appear to be justifiable. I am not sure why I still think that it's wrong, except that it's wrong to swindle people.

This is something that a lot of pet owners have done to themselves and still do to themselves. I just want everyone to go back to taking care of each other like we used to instead of this crap.