Throwing Baby out with the Bathwater: What is true?
If you have followed any of the recent HSUS anti-puppy mill campaigns, you might remember a sad-eyed little 3-legged poodle named Baby. You might have even seen the pictures of Baby in the arms of President Obama. Once a ‘puppy mill’ dog, now the subject of a book, a HSUS movement and website, “A Rare Breed of Love”. The HSUS has been telling the story of Baby, to bolster these campaigns for several years now, especially focusing on the story of how Baby lost her leg.
The problem is, the story keeps changing.
- ”One day, Baby’s left front leg was broken. The leg was left untreated for more than 10 years, and ultimately had to be amputated. “ Wayne Pacelle, A Humane Nation, June 2007 http://hsus.typepad.com/wayne/2007/06/help_save_dogs_.html
- “Baby’s leg had to be amputated after her rescue because it had been broken so many times during her 10 years of being used for breeding in a puppy mill.” Wayne Pacelle, A Humane Nation, December 2007 http://hsus.typepad.com/wayne/2007/12/pets-of-bel-air.html
- “At her foster home, Baby jumped off a sofa and broke her leg. Normally, a dog’s leg could be set and healed, but Baby had been deprived of proper nutrition, exercise and veterinary care so long that the bones never healed, despite three attempts at setting her leg. She eventually had to have the leg amputated.” Jana Kohl, Baby’s owner http://www.madison.com/tct/news/291970
- “One of Baby’s legs had been so badly mangled in her former cage that it had to be amputated” Michael Markarian, president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund and Executive VP of External Affairs HSUS http://hslf.typepad.com/political_animal/2008/02/yes-we-canstop.html
- “Horrified that such a thing exists in this world, she decided to adopt Baby, an older dog with one amputated leg and one of the survivor of a puppy mill, and subsequently went on a crusade to raise awareness of cruelty toward animals.” http://animalsmatter.wordpress.com/2008/06/09/puppy-mill-survivor/
- A Rare Breed of Love was inspired by “Baby,” an abused puppy mill survivor who lived through a 9-year ordeal http://www.ararebreedoflove.com/about-baby.html
Choosing to own a special needs animal is commendable. That any dog ends up losing a limb is unfortunate. That essential details of Baby’s story should keep changing are troubling. Was Baby’s ‘ordeal’ 9 years, 10 years, more? Was the removed leg previously broken or not? Was it broken while in foster care or not? Was it broken once or multiple times? This kind of information is (or should be) easy to keep straight, especially when one considers that Wayne Pacelle and Jana Kohl are friends and have been participating in the HSUS ‘puppy mill’ campaign since at least 2007. There would also be vet records associated with this kind of surgery.
The story of this situation should be extremely consistent, expecially considering the close relationships of all the sources and the documentation that should exist. If this much spin is occuring from the highest levels of the HSUS regarding the story of one little dog, how much else can be trusted?
Copyright 2009 by Erica Saunders
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