craven mail bag: branwyne and beagles

Wanted to share this video of the latest rescue from the Beagle Freedom Project...

Note the descriptions of the dogs from the BFP website..

"Our Fourth rescue was our biggest ever! On November 23, 2011, We saved 40 beagles from a laboratory in Spain where they had lived their entire lives and flew them to us to Los Angeles, CA. Many had tattoos not just in one ear, but in both, indicating they had come from more than one laboratory. Many of these angels landed with teeth rotten, bleeding and falling out and tumors. Some had to have surgery – many had to have teeth pulled. They are all doing exceptional now and have all gone into their forever homes!"



Watch these dogs when they let them out of the crates...no socialization, years of torture at human hands, they have never experienced being outside. Not used to the noise, kept in isolation in cages, no training or positive human contact, many in pain from rotten teeth and medical procedures. You can see that the males in the video are intact. When the crates are opened, they are obviously scared, but after a few moments, they appear joyful. Tail wagging, allowing strangers to hold and pet them and handle them, totally fine with the other beagles. This video makes me want to cry........ while humane groups spent thousands of dollars subsidizing and promoting pit bull ownership, the plight of lab beagles goes ignored.

Why all the fuss about the Vick dogs, when this is happening to beagles every day? The rescue was done at the end of November 2011, by January 2012 all the beagles were placed in homes. No extensive "rehab" needed! In many ways, these beagles had it much worse than the Vick dogs, many of whom were young dogs that had not been fought. Yet nary a peep of public outcry, and no attention from the humane groups like HSUS. Pit bulls raised in these conditions would be expected to kill someone when let loose, and attack the other dogs. Why don't we expect this from beagles?

Beagle rescue isn't as "sexy" as pit bull rescue...the types of people who adopt lab beagles aren't looking for bragging rights, or to make a statement about beagles as a breed. They don't have anything to prove, and are not out to save the beagles reputation, because it doesn't need saving. These small, friendly hounds don't attract the types of colorful grifters that excel as reality TV stars, so their cause is eclipsed by the manufactured drama of pit bull rescue.

There are many companies in this country which breed beagles and small hound mixes to sell to medical and cosmetic testing labs. While this fact should horrify dog lovers and humane groups, most seem too busy fretting over things like "pit bull discrimination". The fact that the plight of pit bulls is caused ENTIRELY by the people who own, breed, and claim to love pit bulls...the alleged stewards of the breed....seems lost on most pit bull fans. They prefer the drama of imagining that "haters" are somehow causing millions of pit bulls to be bred, neglected, abused, and dumped.

Pit bull attacks are frequently blamed on the fact that the aggressive pit bull was "abused", lived life on a chain outside, was not "socialized", was not "trained". How, then, do we explain these beagles? How can these sweet tempered hounds go from years of isolation and torture straight into adoptive homes with so little fuss? How on earth can that woman in the video be so fearless as to cuddle and kiss that poor, terrified beagle, right on his face? Shouldn't she expect to get bitten?

Or is it possible that the sweet disposition of these beagles is genetic?

Branwyne

http://beaglefreedomproject.org

Saving Man's Best Friend

How Dangerous Breed Advocates are Redefining Our Relationships with Dogs and Why We Should Stop Them



Barney was the runt of a litter born to the neighbor's mutt. We conned our mom into keeping him, when we brought him home one day "just to show her." He never left. We think he was a Border Collie-Sheltie-Golden Retreiver-Cocker Spaniel...oh, hell, we had no idea what he was.

By Branwyne Finch
A guest writer for the DogsBite.org Blog.

Instead of the age-old common sense method of trying to match families with dogs whose behaviors would be a good fit with their lifestyle, rescues and shelters began trying to "sell" the public on pit bulls. As rescuing a dog became increasingly popular and the politically correct way to acquire a family pet, the rescue community had to up the anti; it wasn't enough for a family to adopt a popular dog breed who would find a home anyway. You could demonstrate your moral superiority by adopting an "unwanted" pit bull that would surely otherwise face euthanization if you didn't! In fact, adopting a pit bull with behavioral problems that needed "rehabilitation" elevated you to sainthood! You could join one of hundreds of online communities where your ego would be stroked by strangers who fawned over you with exclamations of "Bless you for helping a Pittie!" For the young, the bored and the gullible, the instant status amongst other pit bull owners became an almost irresistible draw.

click to read the entire blog post