Before you take out your checkbook to write a donation to a non-profit organization and then pat yourself on the back for a good deed well-done, stop and think. What is it that you are supporting? What are you actually funding when you write over your hard earned cash? Little did I know when I wrote my monthly checks to a certain non-profit organization I was funding the detriment of my very own best friend, my dog! Along with the promotion of genocide to his breed.

A while back I was a supporter of PETA.I jumped on the bandwagon and figured "hey, if these people are for the ethical treatment of animals- I am too!!" Along with many other non-profit organizations I sent as much money as I could afford (sometimes more than I could afford) to PETA because they were protecting animals. At that time if someone was to ask me "What does PETA do?" I would have said something similar to "Oh, I don't know- they fight against factory farming, the fur industry, and all things to help animals". After all, that's all I saw on their website and the mailings they sent me!

To back track a bit, after my poodle Suzy passed away I was devastated and depressed. It was not too long afterward that my boyfriend and I decided to adopt Maximus, our American Pit Bull Terrier. He is such an important part of our lives, a crucial part of our family (both immediate and extended); and we cannot imagine life without him... but PETA, the organization I was supporting certainly can!

A little over a year ago, while researching Pit Bull related sites on the internet I came across a page on www.workingpitbull.com that reveals "The Truth About PETA".  It turns out that Ingrid Newkirk (the CEO and Founder of PETA) was once bitten by a "Pit Bull" type dog when she was an animal cop. This dog was abused and neglected, the fact that is was a "Pit Bull" type dog plays no role in the situation, in my opinion.  However, because of this incident Ingrid feels that she can be a first hand witness at the instability of the breed (which is an extremely unjustified stereotype) and therefore promotes "Breed Specific Legislation" (BSL) which in actuality is the eventual genocide of all "Pit Bull" breeds. PETA fights against the "Holocaust on your plate" but they promote a holocaust on your family members?

To sum up my feelings into one word I was disillusioned.This was absolutely crushing to me and I had to find out first hand whether or not these facts were true. I constructed a long email regarding the accusations and how important these views were to me as a supporter of PETA. I then received an email in response stating why they believe in BSL but it was basically a "dog and pony show" way of saying yes, without actually saying "yes". This article isn't about why PETA is wrong for supporting BSL so I won't get too into detail but the email included excerpts such as:

"Before founding PETA, Ingrid Newkirk was the chief of Animal Disease Control... She waded into dangerous situations on a daily basis in an effort to help abused and neglected dogs, risking her safety countless times in the back alleys and slums of Washington. Over and over again, she rescued pit bulls from people who beat and starved them, chained them to metal drums as "guard" dogs, or trained them to attack people and other animals. This breed stands out as the most abused in dogdom. It is the relentless abuse of these animals that motivates our efforts to stop people from bringing more pits into the world to be hurt and exploited."

"Some pit bulls are loving companions. But nice families rarely come to a shelter to adopt pit bulls. Almost without exception, those who want pit bulls are attracted to the "macho" image of the breed as a living weapon and seek to play up this image by putting the animals in heavy chains, taunting them into aggression, and leaving them out in all weather extremes to "toughen" them."

So what am I? Am I not a loving family? Perhaps "some" should be replaced by "most". Granted, Pit Bull breeds are probably the most exploited breeds of all at the current time- but whose fault is that? The owners! Why not promote legislation that targets the abusive owners instead of a breed that has been held in HIGH regard for generations until most recently during its turn as the "fad" breed? If all three "Pit Bull" breeds are eliminated will these horrible owners not choose another "fad" breed? Of course they will!Any dog owner should be worried about BSL regardless of the breed you own because it spreads like cancer.