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Originally Posted by FGFan
LOL..not fight if that's what you think.
I have hunting and herding dogs. Black & Tan Coonhounds, Catahoulas, Pit bulls and Dogos(Argentian Mastiffs), and a useless Basenji, she doesn't even like to be outside. She's in bed under the covers right now.
Our dogs hunt everything from large game, bears, big cats, wild boar hogs, and deer, mainly blood trailers for deer with our dogs, and smaller game coons and such. The catahoulas also herd mean, charging longhorns and brahmas.
But because our dogs are used to stop prey and will do it aggressively the AR people want us stopped. Actually they want all hunting stopped. So it goes to legislators and as Riot said we are mainly an urban society, so all the legislators don't understand what goes on when a 3000 lb bull gets loose and is running the roads with nothing to stop them but one of our dogs.
The odd thing is they never worry about the dogs only those 500 lb wild boar hogs with razor sharp tusks that are 3 inches long and would as soon kill them and then eat them.
On the other side the Dept. of Wildlife & Fisheries is always trying to allow for the use of our bay and catch dogs to hunt the wild boar hogs that destroy 1000's of acres of marsh land and levees. They have found the most efficient way to hunt wild boar hogs is with dogs. As well our dogs the Catahoula is not a man-made species they are self-developed from the dogs that DeSoto brought here in the 1500's during the exploration of the Mississippi River.
I've done this dance with the politicians, it rarely ends up good even in a rural state such as mine. As an owner you should be very worried about the reprucussions of these types of hearings.
This is an ochestrated event led by Connie Harriman as ploy for the HSUS.
I believe in animal welfare, I believe there are some very shady trainers. But the Fed intervening led by a bunny huggers husband is not going to achieve anything but bad legislation.
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I completely disagree with your characterization of the hearings as a ploy for the HSUS. I think that the majority of people in the business think that major changes need to be made. I think the main point of contention amongst people in the business is the question of whether federal government intervention is needed or not.
I don't know why you would be so sure that the federal government would write bad legislation in this case. They're not going to do anything without getting input from people in the business. That was why they had the hearings and had an expert panel. I don't know how any of you could claim that the people on the panel were not qualified to give advice to the committee. You had Dr McIlwraith who is considered by many to be the top equine surgeon in the country. You had the head of the Jockey's Club, the head of the NTRA, the head of the CHRB, a hall of fame trainer, a state vet, etc. How can anyone say with a straight face that this was some kind of farce. That is absurd.
If you guys could have picked 2 additional people to be on the panel, who would you have picked? Do you really think that would have made a big difference? I don't. I think you had very compelling witnesses on that panel. If you would have had a couple of big-time trainers up there who claimed that no major changes need to be made, do you think that anyone would have believed them? Do you think that they would have had any credibility? The people on that panel had no reason to lie. If you had a couple of big-time trainers up there, they would have had every reason to lie.