Like residents of Elgin, Illinois you may be wondering with whom Councilman John Prigge (and perhaps Mayor Ed Schock, Councilman Robert Gilliam, et al) has been associating after Wednesday’s Meeting of the Whole Committee meeting during which Mr. Prigge directly cited the radical animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) as reason to pass breed-specific legislation (BSL). What he didn’t tell Elgin citizens is that PETA also advocates the end of domestic pet ownership altogether and BSL is just one of the ways they go about doing that:
In the end, I think it would be lovely if we stopped this whole notion of pets altogether. Ingrid Newkirk, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), Newsday, Feb. 21, 1988.
Let us allow the dog to disappear from our brick and concrete jungles“from our firesides, from the leather nooses and chains by which we enslave it. John Bryant, Fettered Kingdoms: An Examination of A Changing Ethic, Washington People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, (PETA), 1982, p. 15.
Animal rights apologists often criticize the use of those quotes and say they’re outdated. The quotes may be old, but the agenda is not. (You can read more quotes from animal rights groups by clicking here.) Indeed, PETA’s campaign against “pit bulls” is quite current. For instance, in 2007, PETA and a similar animal rights organization the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), advocated that the dogs in the Michael Vick case be killed. Luckily, the judge in the case decided to release those dogs passing temperaments tests (all but one out of 49 dogs passed their temperament tests) to be rehabilitated. (Source: The Washington Post) Many went on to live out their lives happily in homes with families, and others were prominently featured in a show called “Dogtown” on the National Geographic channel. Clearly PETA and the HSUS were wrong about “pit bulls.” So is Prigge.
In the interest of full disclosure, perhaps Mr. Prigge should have told Elgin residents the truth about these radical animal rights organizations that want an end to domestic pet ownership and even an end to animal farming. I don’t think the Republican base in Elgin — the majority of voters, mind you — would appreciate Prigge being in league with a radical animal rights organization that hands out pamphlets to school children entitled Your Mommy Kills Animals! and makes a regular practice of killing companion animals, as noted by petakillsanimals.com:
From July 1998 through December 2008, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) killed over 21,000 dogs, cats, and other “companion animals.” That’s more than five defenseless creatures every day. PETA has a walk-in freezer to store the dead bodies, and contracts with a Virginia Beach company to cremate them…the group put to death over 90 percent of the animals it took in during the last five years.
PETA has also likened the killing of animals for food to the Holocaust. According to CNN:
[A] graphic campaign and exhibit “Holocaust on Your Plate,” devised by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, juxtaposes 60-square-foot panels displaying gruesome scenes from Nazi death camps side by side with disturbing photographs from factory farms and slaughterhouses. One shows a starving man in a concentration camp next to a starving cow.
This campaign was an utter affront to true Holocaust survivors which is why the Anti-Defamation League denounced it. Yet this is the group cited by Councilman Prigge as a reason why Elgin should pass a BSL ordinance???
As our good friend over at dogpolitics.com has said,
The efforts by PETA and HSUS to advance breed specific legislation are a betrayal of trust that so many give, and disservice to those desperately working so hard ““ but worst of all, PETA & HSUS spell nothing but homelessness, fear and death for dogs that look a certain way.
A betrayal of trust indeed. The question is, has Councilman John Prigge betrayed Elgin residents’ trust by being in league with these organizations? Since Mr. Prigge has not been forthcoming about so many things surrounding the breed-specific legislation he didn’t even tell Elgin citizens, while campaigning, he was going to push once elected, you have to wonder, as an Elgin citizen, what else Mr. Prigge isn’t telling you about.
For additional information:
3 responses to “Elgin, Illinois Councilman John Prigge Cites PETA as Reason to Pass BSL!!!”
If Priggie et al are not taking concerns from people outside Elgin why are they consulting a organization that does not even have an office here in Elgin. This seems like a double standard to me, or does it mean that an animal right organization has a more important opinion then the voters and citizens of Elgin?
PETA has an agenda and for my elected officials to ignore me and only value their opinion is a crime!
I suspected this when suddenly 4 or 5 small town councils started shouting BSL, all in 1 week.One could smell Peta.
Same week that that Imbecile Mayor claimed that BSL got rid of 45% of the Gangsters in his town.
I have been fighting this Evil Law for around 9 years now.and it is no doubt it is getting worse and I beleive that if voters do not start exercising their rights and selecting candidates of choice,and also warning the Prigge’s of the political world “you got voted in you will be voted out” and become effective in doing this.We may as well all throw in the towel now,writing how wonderful our pits are on blogs on the net,or standing on street corners with placards I do not beleive is going to cut it.
You are both so right. It is nauseating that Councilman Prigge refuses outside resources that would educate him about the unconstitutionality, ineffectiveness, and cost of breed-specific legislation — whether an outright ban or breed-specific restrictions — and yet entertains PETA, the BSL-pushers from Denver (who are believed to be allied with radical animal rights groups), and possibly other outside special interests that will adversely affect Elgin residents. And I watched the video of the Meeting of the Whole meeting from Wednesday just so I could keep an eagle eye on what the councilmen did while one after another people came to the podium to speak against BSL. They fidgeted as they looked down, they did things on their laptops; anything but listen. This is the disdain with which your council views you Elgin. They see you as the unwashed masses and clearly no longer see themselves as public servants, REPRESENTING the people of Elgin. As Selwyn notes, vote out all incumbents, and in the mean time, Elgin residents should take a careful look at whether they should allow those who sit on the council now to remain there.
AND, I forgot to add in my post that the Elgin Animal Control site has for years cited the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) as a resource:
http://www.cityofelgin.org/index.aspx?NID=236
As I noted in the above post, the HSUS is not like your local humane society but is instead an animal rights group similar to PETA with an agenda of ending domestic animal ownership:
We have no ethical obligation to preserve the different breeds of livestock produced through selective breeding. One generation and out. We have no problem with the extinction of domestic animals. They are creations of human selective breeding. Wayne Pacelle, Senior VP of Humane Society of the US, formerly of Friends of Animals and Fund for Animals, Animal People, May, 1993.
I dont have a hands-on fondness for animals¦To this day I dont feel bonded to any non-human animal. I like them and I pet them and Im kind to them, but theres no special bond between me and other animals. Wayne Pacelle, of the Humane Society of the United States, quoted in Bloodties: Nature, Culture and the Hunt by Ted Kerasote, 1993, p. 251.
The following resources will provide more information about the HSUS and how very little they help animals:
7 Things to Know about the HSUS
Humane Society?