What IS the Animal Rights Agenda? With Patti Strand

Patti Strand, president of the National Animal Interest Alliance (NAIA), joins host Laura Reeves to discuss proposed ballot initiatives that have appeared, in identical form, in multiple states with a definite "animal rights" agendas attached.

The current initiative in Oregon and the previous one in Colorado aimed to criminalize injuring or killing animals, including killing for food, hunting, fishing and criminalizes most breeding practices.

Strand contends that it is unlikely the Oregon proposal will receive enough signatures to make it on the ballot, and the Colorado one did not, but that we should always “be aware.”

“It is possible that other groups will come together and urge this sort of thing to get put on the ballot,” Strand said. “But again, since they're going after every use of animals, in my opinion, it's unlikely to succeed anywhere. Not only because it's way too broadly comprised but also because none of the national groups with money would put money into it.

“But this is all part of the animal rights agenda. The animal rights agenda is opposed to using animals for any purpose, regardless of how humane, how responsible or how much benefit might flow from using animals in this way to people and other animals. A great deal of medical research is done on animals, for animals. So clearly there's an animal rights to agenda behind this.

"I will say that (since) it lacks funding from the big organized groups, either (the initiative sponsors) just didn't understand the process and what they were going to be up against in the beginning or it's a shot across the bow, to let us know 'we're still here and this is truly exactly what we want.'

“You do have to be aware that there are people out there, and that you're associating with them every day, maybe they're not even on the other side, but they definitely have been the recipients of a lot of misinformation and information that's told from a very biased point of view. Propaganda is everywhere.

"One of my favorite articles is from a speech (by) Michael Crichton, the guy who wrote Jurassic Park, and it's his speech to the Commonwealth and he opens it up by saying ‘I've been asked to speak to you today and to tell you what I think is the greatest threat facing mankind. And I have a fundamental answer. It is the ability to discern reality from fiction.’ So, we're in a propaganda war.

“You know, one of the major goals of the animal rights movement is to turn us all into guardians instead of owners. You have to be very very careful that you don't fall into that trap. When you say you’re your pet’s guardian or you are a pet parent or whatever, you are moving the goal post a little bit in their direction. Obviously, you don't wanna sound cold and heartless, because that plays into the agenda, too. So, it's just about being sensitive to the language itself and being very, very aware.

“The truth will set you free. I'm really big on truth telling and just being very honest and open about what you do, what it means, why it matters. You can't speak in sound bites and win. If you try to come up with a sound bite that is going to be the perfect rejoinder to what they just said, you're gonna lose.

"Those of us who spend our entire lives with dogs, put every extra dime we have into our dogs, who spend more at veterinarians than many, many people spend on their kids… I mean, we love our dogs deeply. We just don't confuse them with people. We know that they are dogs and we take care of them.”