Celebrities and Animal Abuse

With the ink barely dry on Michael Vick's conviction for cruelty to the pit bulls he abused and killed, there comes a new story of how another celebrity with malice aforethought murdered a helpless animal.

Golfer John Henry "Tripp" Isenhour, III, was engaged in videotaping a TV show called "Shoot Like a Pro" at his home course, Grand Cypress Golf Club, in Florida.

Apparently a red-shouldered hawk, protected as a migratory species, was making sounds that Isenhour thought was interfering with the videotaping.

So after several unsuccessful attempts to hit the hawk by driving golf balls at him, Isenhour finally struck the bird. The defenseless hawk fell to the ground bleeding from both nostrils, and died.

Adding to his gratuitous cruelty, Isenhour now lies that he was only trying to scare the bird--despite eyewitness testimony that after a few missed shots Isenhour said "I'll get him now." (We'll see whether he is stupid enough to lie to the prosecutors and court.)

To the credit of the local authorities, Isenhour has been charged in Orlando with cruelty to animals and killing a migratory bird. Each is a misdemeanor carrying a maximum penalty of 14 months in jail and $1,500 in fines.

There are at least five points that need to be made.

First, like Vick, Isenhour should be punished. It would be scandalous for him to walk away unscathed from his gratuitous, mindless act of cruelty. He should do some jail time, because a small fine would be of no consequence to him. If the prosecutor and judge don't have the stomach for that, then a short house arrest and a couple hundred hours of community service at an avian sanctuary would be acceptable.

Second, Isenhour's club should ask itself if it wants to be the golf home of a coward who so disvalued the life of a beautiful creature which posed no threat to him.

Third, there is no room in this affair for mealy-mouth statements like the one attributed by the Associated Press to Dale Bartlett, deputy manager for animal cruelty issues of the Humane Society of the United States, who is reported as saying that "Because of the high profile of this case, the PGA needs to take steps to address its interest and to make it clear that they don't condone animal cruelty." The PGA must do much more than that, beginning with ascertaining whether their regulations provide some way to discipline Isenhour if he is convicted--by trial or plea--of committing a crime.

Fourth, golf enthusiasts should shun Tripp Isenhour, his public appearances, and any products he shills for.

Fifth, the general public should let Isenhour know, perhaps by mail to his club, that it is fed up with celebrities whose general "I'm above the law"mindset allows them to destroy animals on a whim. Please send letters to:

Grand Cypress Golf Club
One North Jacaranda
Orlando, FL 32826

Animal Rights Books for Sale

ISAR has for sale a limited number of historically important books on the subject of animal rights. Individuals or organizations interested in purchasing books, either singly or in quantity, should Click Here and provide either an email address or telephone number so that an ISAR representative can take the order. Descriptions of each book, and the price per single copy (shipping and handling costs are added), are as follows:

Animals' Rights, Considered in Relation to Social Progress
By Henry S. Salt
Preface by Professor Peter Singer

Originally published in 1892, Salt's classic Animal Rights, Considered in Relation to Social Progress was rescued from obscurity by ISAR and republished in 1980. The book is, in the words of Professor Singer's Preface, "the best of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century works on the rights of animals." ($5.00, hardcover)

The Struggle for Animal Rights
By Professor Tom Regan
Introduction by Colman McCarthy

Published by ISAR in 1987 and dedicated to its founder--the late "Helen Jones who understood animal rights before the rest of us"--Regan's book provides a clear statement of the animal activists' agenda--what they must do, where it should be pursued, and how they can succeed. ($3.00, softcover)

The Extended Circle
By Jon Wynne-Tyson

Lauding the author's anthology of humane thought--which contains commentary by personages from St. Francis of Assisi to William Wordsworth--Professor Peter Singer noted that it is "a marvelous collection of material which will bring encouragement and inspiration to every compassionate reader," while Professor Regan said that "this remarkable book should become the bible of all concerned with humane education and the concept of animal rights." ($7.00 hardcover, $5.00 softcover)

Christianity and the Rights of Animals
By Andrew Linzey

It is no secret that that the Biblical and Christian view of animals was that they did not possess any rights that humans were obliged to respect. In this book, the author--Chaplain and Director of Studies at the Center for the Study of Theology, University of Essex--presents a comprehensive and well-argued theological case for the rights of animals, offering a challenging critique of modern insensitivy toward animal life. ($3.00 softcover)

All Heaven in a Rage
By E.S. Turner

In the nature of a factual/intellectual expose, this book describes how the British nation was led and forced into showing some compassion to certain animals. It illuminates the philosophical, legislative, and social components of that struggle. As one of the book's endorsers wrote, "it ends once and for all the smug myth that the British are the only nation that loves animals and that the only people who are cruel to them are foreigners." ($3.00, softcover)

The Duty of Mercy, and the
Sin of Cruelty to Brute Animals
By Humphrey Primatt
Richard D. Ryder (ed.)

Humphrey Primatt, a clergyman, lived in the Eighteenth Century and was among the first to address the issue of animal rights. Richard D. Ryder discovered Primatt's book in 1976 in an Oxford library. In Ryder's Introduction to it, he writes that "with unprecedented clarity, [here] was a complete book devoted to the moral treatment of animals and composed by a mind comprehensible to my own. This little known doctor of divinity displayed in the 1770s remarkable similar thoughts to those Peter Singer, Tom Regan . . . Andrew Linzey, myself and others had recently been expressing in the 1970s." ($3.00, softcover)

Moral Inquiries on the
Situation of Man and of Brutes
Lewis Gompertz
Peter Singer (ed.)

Lewis Gompertz (1779-1825) was, among his activities on behalf of animals, a founding member of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Great Britain. In Professor Peter Singer's Preface to Gompertz's book, he writes that "Gompertz was an authentic pioneering exponent of the set of ideas that, a century and a half later, have been taken up by the animal liberation movement." ($3.00, softcover).

Decartes is Dead

Today is the 358th anniversary of Rene Descartes death. He was the renowned Christian scientist-philosopher-mathematician who held that animals were automatons — literally. Decartes asserted that lacking a Christian "soul," animals possessed no consciousness. Lacking a consciousness, he concluded, they experienced neither pleasure nor pain. His conclusion was a convenient one; it allowed him to rationalize this dissection of unanesthetized living creatures. Although Descartes' hideous experiments purportedly were done to advance the knowledge of anatomy, they properly earn him a place in history as the Seventeenth Century soul mate of Mengele, the Nazi concentration camp doctor who experimented on human beings.

The world is well rid of both of them.

ISAR in Action

Through ISAR's Billboard Campaign countless motorists throughout the United States are exposed to its spay/neuter message, in partnership with local sponsoring organizations.

Mother Jones Meets An ISAR Billboard

One of ISAR’s major tools in our international effort to educate about the moral and other necessity of spay/neuter of companion animals is our billboard campaign.

The campaign has been a very effective means of drawing attention to dog and cat overpopulation, and the importance of spaying and neutering. As a result of our last campaign, in multiple states throughout the United States public awareness of this important animal rights issue has been heightened. For example, our friends at Spay Austin Coalition purchased three billboards. To view one of them being installed click here.

And in the February issue of Mother Jones magazine, our friends at Paws & Claws Society, Inc. and New Jersey Animal Advocates have come up with a fabulous new idea: getting our huge highway billboards into print media. The folks at Paws & Claws and New Jersey Animal Advocates have turned our billboard into the following paid half-page print advertisement.

The Billboards measure a standard 10'5"x 22'8" and are printed in full color. The lettering is in bright eye-catching blue and white, with photo images of a yellow dog and a tiger-striped kitten. There is space across the bottom where the sponsoring organization's name and phone number will be imprinted as a resource for concerned individuals.

The cost to an organization is $95 for each billboard, made payable to ISAR. These prices include shipping within the continental United States. Each organization placing an order is responsible for posting its own billboards. Many outdoor advertising agencies are willing to donate space or offer discounts to non-profit organizations. Interested organizations should contact their local outdoor advertising firm for information on the availability of public service announcement space and the cost of labor for posting the artwork panels.
ISAR is currently accepting billboard orders. By ordering all the desired billboards at once, the purchaser benefits from quantity discounted prices. Billboards are printed twice a year, July 15th and December 15th. On these dates, we will compile the orders and submit them to the printing company. 

Please contact ISAR for a billboard order form. You may leave a message requesting an order form and a copy of the artwork by calling 1-800-543-ISAR.

In between our "billboard seasons," we encourage humane organizations to follow the lead of Paws & Claws and New Jersey Animal Advocates and use ISAR's billboards as print advertisements.

Token Mandatory Spay/Neuter in Palm Beach, Florida

The following editorial appears today at http://www.palmbeachpost.com/. While Palm Beach's recognition of the unwanted dog and cat problem is commendable, its solution--in merely regulating backyard/hobby breeders and giving a pass to commerical breeders--falls far short of what is needed to ameliorate, let alone solve, the immoral and inhumane spectacle of killings year after year. There is only one definitive solution, one we are working tirelessly to achieve: national mandatory spay/neuter, across the board.

"For animal lovers, the spay and neuter law that Palm Beach County commissioners will consider Tuesday is the best step the county can take to cut down on the number of animals it must euthanize every year. So, why are so many self-styled animal lovers so fiercely against it?

"The reason is the ordinance's demand for greater regulation of backyard or "hobby" breeders, pet owners who breed one or two litters per year, producing no more than 20 kittens or puppies. The rules for bigger, commercial breeders would not change. But the hobby breeders, for the first time, would have to register and be subjected to county oversight, meaning inspections and tracking of sales.

"Hobby breeders say they're not the problem. If they love animals as much as they say they do, however, they should support requirements for spaying and neutering most dogs and cats, in an effort to reduce the numbers of unwanted, homeless animals put to death.

"Palm Beach County killed 18,248 animals last year. Most, 12,000, were cats. While that number has doubled in the past eight years, the number of dogs euthanized at the shelter has dropped from 4,799 to 4,137.

"Animal Care and Control Director Dianne Sauve, who is championing the ordinance, attributes the decline to an increase in the number of dogs going from the pound to rescue leagues for adoption. But there are limits to how many dogs that option can save.

"The hobby breeders champion is County Commissioner Bob Kanjian, who considers the ordinance overreaching and ill-defined. He says he would support an ordinance aimed more precisely at the estimated 200,000 dogs and 280,000 cats that are not licensed. Ms. Sauve argues that the ordinance would help her agency to reduce illegal breeding, often involving pit bulls, but she doubts that she can single them out.

"Since they follow the rules, hobby breeders say, they shouldn't be punished. But how does the county know if they follow the rules? The pound gets purebred dogs along with pit-bull mixes.

"Someone isn't following the rules. The law would make sure that everyone has
to.

"The hobby breeders also argue that the law would force pet owners underground, meaning that fewer animals would be inoculated against rabies. In fact, an e-mail sent by an officer of the Florida Association of Kennel Clubs urged members to remove their addresses from official documents and rent a post office box to escape detection. Doesn't the group's fear of
scrutiny argue for stricter scrutiny?

"While Commissioner Kanjian criticizes Ms. Sauve for failing to document the results of similar laws elsewhere, the law wouldn't be the first in Florida. Monroe County has had a spay-neuter law since 2006 and, coupled with free sterilizations since 2000, shelter admissions in the Upper Keys have dropped 55 percent. Ms. Sauve also cites a similar law in Denver, where euthanasia rates have dropped by 60 percent since that law went into effect in 1995.

"Animal lovers agree that reducing needless deaths is a worthy goal. The spay-neuter ordinance would make sure that the animals they love would not become part of the problem."

Another Municipal Adoption of ISAR Model Mandatory Spay/Neuter Statute

As the preeminent national animal rights organization whose major activity is humane education fostering spay/neuter of companion animals, ISAR is proud to announce that the City of North Las Vegas, Nevada, has just adopted, almost verbatim, our Model Mandatory Spay/Neuter Statute (referred to on the municipal level as an “ordinance.”)
Our Model Statute can be found at http://isaronline.org/programs/dog-and-cat-overpopulation/mandatory-spayneuter/.
When comparing the ISAR Model Statute with the North Las Vegas Ordinance the reader will notice that the latter omits three predicate contextual statements found in the former:
· “WHEREAS, many of these cats and dogs are euthanized by shelters, humane societies, and similar organizations; and
· “WHEREAS, euthanizing cats and dogs, except for bona fide medical reasons, is inhumane and abhorrent to the residents of this jurisdiction; and
· “WHEREAS, euthanizing cats and dogs, except for bona fide medical reasons, is not an effective, economical, humane, or ethical, solution to the problem of unwanted cats and dogs ...."
However, as to the ordinance’s prohibitions and other provisions, the North Las Vegas ordinance utilizes the ISAR statute in virtually every respect, using our actual language:
· It requires the spaying and neutering of dogs and cats.
· It contains exemptions for medical reasons and shelters, so long as the latter requires adoptees to be spayed or neutered.
· It provides that offspring of unspayed cats and unneutered dogs be placed with local shelters for adoption.
· It establishes a 120-day period for compliance, after birth of a puppy or kitten.
· It makes violation of the ordinance a misdemeanor.
There is one major difference, however, between the ISAR Model Mandatory Spay/Neuter Statute and the City of Las Vegas ordinance. The former contains no exception for breeders. The latter, alas, does.
Section 6.06.120 D of the ordinance provides that: “The spay/neuter requirement set forth in section 6.16.010 shall not apply to any dog or cat harbored by a person holding a valid Dog or Cat Fanciers Permit, as permitted in sections 6.08.040 of this title.”
In other words, certain breeders get a pass.
Although there is a sad irony here—breeders are a major cause of the overpopulation problem, that the North Las Vegas ordinance seeks to ameliorate—the law as enacted is a giant step in the right direction, in at least two respects.
First, the ordinance represents a municipal judgment that enough is enough, and that the fate of unwanted dogs and cats, and the problems they cause through no fault of their own, is no longer socially acceptable in the City of Las Vegas, Nevada.
Second, other than the breeder exception, conscientious enforcement of the ordinance should help dry up a large number of the city’s strays, and significantly reduce the number of those yet to be born.
The City and its officials deserve the gratitude of all of us who understand the tragedy of dog and cat overpopulation, and the unspoken thanks of those who cannot speak for themselves.