Watch your language!

[Kimbertalkls]

Subject: Watch your language!

FORWARDING 2 ARTICLES THAT ARE VERY IMPORTANT(This is the first)


7. FW: Watch your language!

From AKC judge, Charlotte Clem McGowan (sporting, working, terrier, toy, herding, BIS+): Begin forwarded message: Watch your language! Posted by: "Charlotte McGowan" Thu Nov 20, 2008 6:27 PM (PST) I would like to make some observations about language. The animal rights people want to change language to help them in their quest to give animals legal standing and we are helping them. Time to stop.

Adopting - this is a term used for humans. We don't adopt animals. Sorry, rescues don't offer dogs for adoption either. They offer them for placement. They re-home them. But they aren't adopted. If money changes hands, they sell them. A shelter here in Mass grosses over $700,000 a year selling imported shelter strays, mutts and feral street dogs. They go for $350 a pop. They don't rescue in my opinion, they keep product in the store! They have a big so-called not for profit 501(c)3 business. If we start calling it like it is (and I do) believe me you are going to feel so much better. Now if a purebred rescue collects money from someone for a dog, they are taking money as a placement or re-homing fee or they are asking to be reimbursed for expenses related to the re-homing. If you need it to be warmer and fuzzier, it is humane re-homing. Let's drop adoption. Animal rights people love us if we help them. Let's stop helping them.

Fostering - This is a term used for children taken by the state and put in the care of people not their parents. We don't foster dogs. We provide temporary care for displaced dogs. Sorry if you find that awkward but we can all benefit by retraining ourselves.

Guardian - legal term used for the legally responsible person caring for a minor child or incapacitated person. I think we get this one. We have to fight Guardian language in animal ordinances tooth and nail because a guardian takes away ownership from the owner. If you own a dog it is yours. If you are a guardian, you are not an owner.
You are a person or entity with legal care responsibility. If dogs have guardians instead of owners, we no longer have ownership rights.

Puppy Mill- There is no such thing. Puppy mill is a slur, like the"N....." word. Let's stop using it. We hate substandard kennels. We want all dogs to be kept well. Well kept dogs are well kept dogs whether they are in kennels or in homes. It isn't about how many dogs there are it is about how well they are kept.

HSU$ call all farms factory farms. When have you ever heard them talk about or care about family farms? Now they call all breeders puppy mills. They try to mumble in a remote footnote that there might be some good breeders but for them it is all about shelters and if not shelters rescues. Do you get it? They use language to slander all animal use and all dog breeders. Their mumbled lip service doesn't fly with me.

Rescue - what is a rescue? To me, IMHO, it is taking on the care and re-homing of a dog in a true need situation. This includes when the owners are incapacitated or die, have to go into a care facility like a nursing home, lose their home, etc. When some one just wants to dump a dog because they are tired of it, that's a disposal job. I am not nice to such people. When purebred rescues go into auctions and buy dogs I call that just plain dumb. That is assisting and supporting commercial breeders. Some people may not agree but supporting this sort of thing does absolutely nothing for purebred dogs. Words that do not belong in the language at all - fur babies, fur kids, fur children. All of these terms make animals into children who (gasp) need guardians, adoption and fostering. So I hope you watch your language! Charlotte McGowan

WE HAVE TO START PROTECTING OURSELVES!!!! Please think ahead.

[For the Animals]

Charlotte,

Thank you for the opportunity to read your observations about language. I have a few observations of my own:

<<”The animal rights people want to change language to help them in their quest to give animals legal standing and we are helping them. Time to stop.”>>

The animal rights people (i.e., the people who care about the treatment of animals) are not looking to change the English language – only to protect animals from abuse, cruelty, and exploitation. Providing animals with legal standing would give them legitimate protections from cruelty and abuse. Without legal standing, animals will continue to be treated as property -- which you are clearly in favor of -- and the people who abuse them will continue to get nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

<< “Adopting - this is a term used for humans. We don't adopt animals. Sorry, rescues don't offer dogs for adoption either. They offer them for placement. They re-home them. But they aren't adopted.”>>

Actually, the word “adopt” is not used only for humans. According to various dictionaries (including Merriam-Webster), the word adopt means to “take by choice into a relationship.” The word “adopt” can be used to refer to humans, animals, or even ideas and methodologies. Interestingly, the word “re-homing” is not actually a word in the English language and does not exist in any dictionary. Rescues do, in fact, offer animals for adoption – not “placement.” Rescues are not arranging furniture or assigning someone for employment – they are, heroically, finding homes for neglected and abused animals who just want to be loved.

<<”If money changes hands, they sell them. A shelter here in Mass grosses over $700,000 a year selling imported shelter strays, mutts and feral street dogs. They go for $350 a pop. They don't rescue in my opinion, they keep product in the store!”>>

Your description of an atypical shelter that supposedly charges a high adoption fee is completely irrelevant. Mostly all rescues and shelters charge a modest fee for adoption so that they can cover the expenses (spaying / neutering, veterinary expenses, vaccinations, etc) involved in caring for the animals that are waiting to be adopted. (Yes, I said “adopted.”) And just because some shelters charge higher adoption fees (for a variety of reasons) doesn’t necessarily mean that those shelters aren’t legitimate. Moreover, mentioning a shelter’s gross receipts without also revealing their expenses is completely nonsensical. The same shelter that grosses over $700,000 per year might actually be losing money.. Just out of curiosity, what do you charge for the Shetland Sheepdogs that you have been breeding (for your own personal profit and entertainment) for the past 40 years?

<<”They have a big so-called not for profit 501(c)3 business.”>>

Shelters / rescues that have 501(c)3 status are monitored and scrutinized by the IRS, so your suggestion that many shelters “sell” animals for profit is, again, misguided.

<<”Animal rights people love us if we help them. Let's stop helping them.”>>

Trust me – neither “animal rights people” nor the animals love you.

<<”Fostering - This is a term used for children taken by the state and put in the care of people not their parents. We don't foster dogs. We provide temporary care for displaced dogs. Sorry if you find that awkward but we can all benefit by retraining ourselves.”>>

See my previous comments above regarding “adoption.” The reason that most people use words like “adopt” and “foster,” which may have, traditionally, been used more often to refer to humans is because, increasingly, people are recognizing that animals deserve to be treated with respect and love – and not like property that can be disposed of (or quieted by debarking). However, I do have to agree with your statement that you can benefit from some retraining.

<<”Guardian - legal term used for the legally responsible person caring for a minor child or incapacitated person. I think we get this one. We have to fight Guardian language in animal ordinances tooth and nail because a guardian takes away ownership from the owner.”>>

The issue is protecting animals against exploitation, abuse, and cruelty. The fact that you are so worried about animals receiving additional legal protections against abusers should tell us something.

<<”Puppy Mill- There is no such thing. Puppy mill is a slur, like the"N....." word. Let's stop using it. We hate substandard kennels. We want all dogs to be kept well. Well kept dogs are well kept dogs whether they are in kennels or in homes. It isn't about how many dogs there are it is about how well they are kept.”>>

Wow. This comment is so outlandish that it doesn’t even require a response. But, I think I’ll provide one anyway. There is no such thing as a puppy mill? Have you been living on this planet? You care about how the dogs are “kept”? Owners of a store care about how their inventory is “kept.” People who have compassion care about how animals are treated and cared for. I guess your choice of language shouldn’t be surprising considering your well-known reputation as a cheerleader for debarking. Yes, Charlotte, arranging for holes to be cut into your dogs vocal cords – and depriving them of their voice – because they are just a bit too noisy for your taste is cruel and egregious. And no, Charlotte, debarking doesn’t “save lives” (as you assert in your Kansas State Univ. article). Anyone who would dump their dog at a shelter because he/she barks too much, would probably end up dumping them down the road anyway – when the dog became “inconvenient” for another reason.

<<”HSU$ call all farms factory farms. When have you ever heard them talk about or care about family farms? Now they call all breeders puppy mills. They try to mumble in a remote footnote that there might be some good breeders but for them it is all about shelters and if not shelters rescues. Do you get it? They use language to slander all animal use and all dog breeders. Their mumbled lip service doesn't fly with me.”>>

If you actually did some research, you would see that they don’t call all breeders puppy mills. And why shouldn’t they promote rescuing, adoption and saving lives? Is it so that you can continue to breed dogs for profit and entertainment? Oh wait – you probably do it for the love of the breed – while 4 million companion animals are euthanized in shelters every year.

<<”Words that do not belong in the language at all - fur babies, fur kids, fur children. All of these terms make animals into children who (gasp) need guardians, adoption and fostering. So I hope you watch your language! Charlotte McGowan
WE HAVE TO START PROTECTING OURSELVES!!!! Please think ahead.”>>

Charlotte, while you’re protecting your wallet – and debarking dogs for your own convenience -- the adopters, foster parents, rescuers, guardians, and animal advocates will be working hard to protect the animals from cruelty, abuse, and exploitation.

[SnuzerDog]

Wow, good luck on that Kimbertalkls.

As someone who really appreciates proper English usage, I understand this judge's intent, but I have to agree with For the Animals on their response. Plus, this is really a losing fight from the beginning anyway, unless you can somehow show people (get them to care) why they should change- human nature has shown me time and again how personally people take this sort of criticism. Add in the extra emotion of rescue operations, and this person is asking for constant arguments... :(

[DLS]

Yoiks, in no way are kennel kept dogs a good thing.

[von Cosack Dobermann]

There are ligitament reasons for kenneling dogs, a security dog that is a hard core animal that is not socialable and is capable of work who otherwise would be destroyed would be kenneled. There are many tracking K9 corps who kennel and their dogs are healthy and happy. Kenneling dogs for breeding purposes has been denounced because of the lack of socialization needed to produce stability and character, there are dogs that kennel well but the vast majority that I've encounter don't. Our breed can be kenneled only if their surrounded by others (dogs) and the time duration is short. The Dobermann being a Personnal Dog does much better with people. Thats what they were bred for. Von.

[RKCM]

Yes, Von. We don't have to do kennels here and the dogs enjoy being right near me. They can't protect much if they are locked up. I can see that some must be in runs, like you explained. Don't these dogs need to run too?