Ends and Means

ISAR supporters know that the fundamental goal driving our organization is to reduce, if not eliminate, the overpopulation of companion animals through humane education, emphasizing spay/neuter as a major solution to the problem.

To that end, in addition to our other programs, ISAR recently produced a study and model law--Model Statute Regulating Dog Breeding, Facilitation and Sales--dealing with the vice of puppy mills and other wholesale and retail breeding and sale of dogs and cats. The ISAR-proposed statute has, no pun intended, teeth, because among other provisions some sections impact heavily on breeders in general and puppy mill operators in particular.

Since publication of our study/model law, we've received considerable positive reaction from ISAR supporters and others who understand the nature of the overpopulation problem, and grasp why ISAR's solution has merit.

Yet, apparently not everyone understands what we're trying to accomplish.

ISAR has recently received the following comment, reproduced below in its entirety.

I read your puppy mill book and there is no way I can support your group's extreme, government imposed goals which sounds ultimately like dog extinction. In reality, there is the very real potential to turn people against more moderate and constructive solutions by association with your solutions. I can't speak for the rest of the people in our Rescue.
The "Rescue" to which the writer refers, according to its website, is a "a licensed 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation dedicated to saving the lives of dogs and cats."

If that's true, and we assume it is, it should be unnecessary for us to point out that a major way to save the lives of dogs and cats is through the kind of breeder and other restrictions the ISAR model statute proposes.

ISAR doesn't hide from the characterization "extreme," nor from the fact that amelioration of the overpopulation problem rests at least in part on the power of government.

While ISAR respects the important, usually very difficult work, of rescue groups, they need to understand that laws such as that proposed by ISAR will go a long way to making their work easier.