(I am correcting an alert I sent out yesterday. I wrote that Stu Bykofsky writes for the Philadelphia Inquirer, when it is, in fact, the Daily News. Sorry! The information in the alert below is now correct. If you sent a letter to the Inquirer, I hope you won't mind forwarding it -- after deleting the Inquirer address -- to the Daily News instead.)
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Last weekend, Philadelphia Daily News columnist Stu Bykofsky won a Genesis Award (www.GenesisAwards.com) for a number of animal friendly editions of his regular column. Today he is back on track, with a column headed "Local guy coaxed Oprah into show attacking puppy mills"
He writes:
"If Oprah can do for Fido what she's done for some authors and Barack Obama, dog lovers will wag their tails. They were drooling in anticipation of Oprah's show last Friday.
He notes that Oprah received "a very public 'invitation' by Bill Smith" to cover the issue:
"The founder and head of 10-year-old Main Line Animal Rescue, in Chester Springs, Smith in February spent $10,000 of a donor's money to put up an anti-puppy-mill billboard near Oprah's studio. It pictured a cute dog pleading: 'Oprah - please do a show on puppy mills; the dogs need you.'"
He writes of the puppy mills:
"In the worst cases, easily seen on the Web, breeder dogs are kept day and night in tiny cages - from which they are released only by death - with wire bottoms that hurt their paws. Cages are sometimes overcrowded, sometimes stacked on top of each other, so when the dog above defecates, the waste pours over the dogs below.
"The dogs often are not sheltered, watered or fed properly, nor do they have human contact or medical care. It is brutality.
"And yet, in a state governed by an avowed dog lover, puppy mills are not shut down and thousands of dogs endure lives of endless misery and pain, many covered with crud or sores. We wouldn't have such abysmal cruelty if Pennsylvania's dog wardens were effective."
Bykofsky and Smith suggest that "dog lovers must take the lead in shutting down the puppy mills by choking off demand."
Bykofsky writes:
"Smith says pet stores get 99 percent of their puppies from puppy mills. The Humane Society of the United States agrees. Pet stores create the demand that keeps mother dogs locked forever in wire cages.
"To close puppy mills, Smith told Oprah, adopt only from breed rescue groups or shelters.
"Calling herself 'a changed woman,' Oprah vowed never to buy another dog from a store, urged her viewers to adopt, and aired a segment on neutering pets. She hit all the right notes, as only she can."
You'll find the column on line at
http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/17346519.html
You can thank the author at stubyko@phillynews.com.
Plus, the columns presents a perfect opportunity for letters to the editor that keep the adoption discussion alive on the editorial page.
You could also use the article as a jump-off point for discussions of the treatment of animals on factory farms.
(If you know little about that issue, please visit www.FactoryFarming.com )
The Philadelphia Daily News takes letters at views@phillynews.com
Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Remember that shorter letters are more likely to be published.
Those who missed Oprah's puppy mill and adoption show on Friday can watch much of it in segments on line at http://tinyurl.com/2cvs6g
And if you haven't already, please thank Oprah for Friday's show. She reaches many millions of people every day so we need to do everything we can to encourage more animal friendly shows from her.
Send your thanks at
http://www2.oprah.com/email/reach/email_reach_fromu.jhtml
Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn
(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line. If somebody forwards DawnWatch alerts to you, which you enjoy, please help the list grow by signing up. It is free.)
Please go to www.ThankingtheMonkey.com to read advance reviews of Karen Dawn's new book, "Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals" and watch the fun celebrity studded promo video.
To discontinue DawnWatch alerts go to http://www.DawnWatch.com/nothanks.php
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Date: Tue Apr 8 13:44:15 2008
