Forced Sterilization

I went to see my therapist yesterday. Just the regular, sort of necessary monthly visit. I think they consider me to be on “maintenance.” My therapist likes dogs so she was asking me to explain to her why the idea of a mandatory spay/neuter in our city/county was a bad idea. (See Why I Hate The Idea of Animal Rights.) I was explaining and she pops up and says that she thinks FORCED STERILIZATION FOR PEOPLE should be required. I just stared at her. What can you say to that? She started saying something about welfare mothers with too many kids, blah blah blah. I finally said I didn't really like anything forced or mandatory.

She is a nice older lady. But how do I get these fruit loops?

Just to be sure I wasn't crazy I came home and checked online. Yeah, forced sterilization is considered a crime against humanity. So, it's not just me that thinks it's a bad idea. The Nazis did it for eugenics reasons. They have done it in India and China as birth control. It just sucks. I can't believe I have a therapist who actually thinks we should do that here.

I would change therapists but with my luck I would get someone even worse.

I was struggling with this information all night. It boggles my mind that there are Americans in favor of forced sterilization. It generally boggles my mind when people want to take rights away from other people, but this is something extremely personal. I don’t know where in the Constitution it says that we have reproductive rights but I’m pretty sure I was born with those rights. No one should be able to take them away from me because I make below a certain income level or my I.Q. is low or for any other reason. And you know it’s always the poorest folks in a country who are singled out for laws like this -- they’re the ones least able to fight back.

I struggled with whether or not I would post this story here because I wasn’t sure I wanted to tell all the world I see a therapist. But I did post it and I do see a therapist. I have what’s called social anxiety disorder. It’s not so bad now because I take medication for it but for a while it was ruining my life. Some people think of it as shyness but that’s not really an accurate description. It can take the form of agoraphobia. I was afraid to leave my house because I didn’t want to see people. I couldn’t answer my phone because I was afraid to talk to them. If I had to call someone I had to write down what I was going to say so I would be prepared. Sometimes it would take me a day or two to work up the nerve to call somebody. If someone came to my door I was terrified. I had panic attacks all the time. Anything could set me off. I was living in a state of fear all the time, afraid of everyone and everything.

Fortunately, after trying to get some help and not getting the right diagnoses, I found a good doctor and got the right medication. I’ve been getting better ever since. I live a fairly normal life now. Most people think I’m very outgoing and they can’t get me to shut up.

I’ve had a couple of great therapists over the years but the last couple I’ve had have been less than stellar. This current therapist is a nice lady but I’m a little worried that we’re not connecting very much. The whole forced sterilization issue kind of brought that out in the open.

If you didn’t know it, the United States has had laws on the books about forced sterilization.

The United States was the first country to concertedly undertake compulsory sterilization programs for the purpose of eugenics. The heads of the program were avid believers in eugenics and frequently argued for their program. They were devastated when it was shut down due to ethical problems. The principal targets of the American program were the mentally retarded and the mentally ill, but also targeted under many state laws were the deaf, the blind, people with epilepsy, and the physically deformed. Native Americans, as well as Afro-American women,[17] were sterilized against their will in many states, often without their knowledge, while they were in a hospital for other reasons (e.g. childbirth). Some sterilizations also took place in prisons and other penal institutions, targeting criminality, but they were in the relative minority. In the end, over 65,000 individuals were sterilized in 33 states under state compulsory sterilization programs in the United States.[18]

(Wikipedia)

It’s been tried here before on the state level so you shouldn’t imagine that it’s something that could never happen here. We were right up there with our Nazi friends, leading the way toward a more eugenically-perfect world before WWII. Americans seem to have lost interest in the idea after seeing Hitler’s efforts, thank goodness. But it could happen here again.

Why I Hate the Idea of Animal Rights

I usually try not to write about dogs on this blog since that’s what I get paid to do on the blog I write elsewhere. I know people get tired of hearing dog owners gush about their pets, too. I also know that I tend to rant about certain subjects -- subjects that people can have strong feelings about. For instance, I have purebred dogs. I know that there’s a strong movement in this country toward adopting pets and many people are under the impression that mutts make better pets. I can give you at least twenty reasons why that’s bull but I don’t really want to argue about it here. I will say that I worked with rescue for years and fostered dogs. Sometimes I adopted dogs that otherwise couldn’t find homes. I finally quit helping rescue when a dog that I kept for them attacked my own dogs and tried to bite a child. When I asked for help with her from the rescue group they told me it was my problem. I had enough at that point.

One of the things that’s going on here where I live is a push by the chairman of the local animal control commission to institute a mandatory spay/neuter law. Believe me, that’s gone over like a lead balloon. This is a rural area. It’s more than rural. It’s mountainous. There are a lot of hunters here who hunt bear, boar, fox, raccoons and other “critters.” They keep packs of dogs for hunting. Some hunters may have 40-50 dogs and take out more than a dozen a night for hunting. They take good care of their dogs but the dogs are intact. That means that they are not spayed or neutered. For good reason. Hunters choose the best dogs for breeding. They may occasionally trade dogs with other hunters. They may pass on pups to friends. Once in a while they may sell a dog or a puppy. They don’t want their dogs spayed and neutered.

So, this difference of opinion between the local animal control commission chairman and a few people on the commission and the hunters has been fought during commission meetings. The hunters and local breeders have been packing the meeting room to argue against the idea of MSN (mandatory spay/neutering). And the chairman just won’t let it die. She seems to be motivated by several local rescue groups who are strongly animal rights-oriented.

You should know that even the local animal control director has said that there hasn’t been any increase in stray dogs in the county. There has been an increase in owner turn-ins at the shelter in the last year, which has exactly zero to do with breeding or hunters. Spaying and neutering won’t make people keep their dogs if they want to give them up. Most of the time people turn in dogs to the shelter because of behavior problems or because they are moving or because of financial difficulties. None of these things has any connection to an animal’s sexual status.

The great majority of people on the animal control commission are also against MSN in the city/county but the chairman has set yet another subcommittee meeting for next month. MSN is clearly not something that is wanted by this community. Maybe this chairman will realize it sooner or later.

Unfortunately, the AR rescue people in the area are pushing things to a dangerous point right now. I spoke to one of the hunters yesterday and he told me that rescue people had been at the homes of some of the hunters trying to see into their kennels. He said that rescue people had approached hunters while they were out with their dogs and asked them if they wanted to get their dogs spayed and neutered. They have even been seen trying to lure hunting dogs with canned food so they could “rescue” them. Seriously, this is an area where hunters have guns. Somebody is going to get hurt if these people don’t back off.

I only have five dogs but I’m a breeder. I’ve been showing and breeding my dogs for a little over 20 years. I detest the idea of MSN. Not only does it fail to solve any problems and it has backfired everywhere it’s been tried, but I believe that it violates our rights. The government should not be able to force me to spay or neuter my pets. That should be a decision that is solely between me and my vet for the health of my dogs.

I’m also vehemently opposed to animal rights. I find that most people who support the idea of animal rights have very little true animal knowledge. They have not been raised with animals. They don’t know anything about farming or hunting. For them, all animals are pets and should live in the house and be cuddled. That’s fine if you have a cute little cat or dog as a pet. But the fact is that not everyone lives that way. I believe there are many ways of keeping animals and animals have many purposes besides being pets. We need animals on farms. Hunters deserve the right to continue hunting. People with real knowledge of animal husbandry don’t look at all animals as cute, cuddly pets and it’s a mistake for other people to try to force through laws that would demand all animals be treated that way.

Consider PETA’s latest campaign to rename fish as “sea kittens.” Have you ever heard anything so stupid? What on earth is wrong with fishing? Why should we try to make fish warm and fuzzy? They aren’t. I don’t care what kind of social life they have. Fish have provided sustenance to humans for thousands of years and coming up with a silly new name for them isn’t going to change the fact that fishing is a part of our economy and many people depend on fish for food.

Most people don’t realize that the real agenda of the animal rights movement is to eliminate pet ownership altogether. It is “speciesist” in the extreme and would like to see either the elimination of humans from the earth or a “Back to Eden” lifestyle that would wipe out the majority of human life on earth so the animals could flourish. Animal rights values animal life more than human life. When people begin to realize that maybe they will stop supporting PETA and the Humane Society of the United States.

For quotes from animal rights leaders you can click here.