---Permission to cross-post.- --   (from another all breed list)

List members, friends:

A good friend of mine has made plans to buy property outside the state.
Several times last year she remarked wistfully to me that she has a
dream of being able to someday return to the town that she grew up in,
and still loves.

This woman was followed home (city#1) after showing up at local
government meetings to voice her opposition to pending anti-pet
legislation. From that point on, she was a target of threats and
harassment. The anti-pet legislation she was fighting in her hometown
was passed. Suffice to say, she doesn't live there anymore, because
protection of her beloved pets was her overriding concern.

When anti-pet legislation was introduced in the next place she lived
(city #2) she didn't show up to voice her opposition at city council
meetings. Her circumstances had changed, she knew she couldn't move for
a while, and she knew what happened the last time around. The coercive
laws she opposed (but couldn't speak out about) were passed, and now
she is, in many ways "in hiding" in her own home (city #2). This
responsible pet owner has decided it would be unwise to let her own
veterinarian know where she lives. Contact her local representatives to
try to effect change in pet legislation, even once the disastrous
results of mandatory spay/neuter legislation (MSN) rear their ugly
head? Forget about it - she's been to that movie before. Register to
vote in her new city? Problematic paper trail.=

Those of us who sat in on AB 1634 hearings remember Lloyd Levine and
other bill proponents scoffing at the idea of AC going door to door,
and wholeheartedly assuring legislators that wouldn't happen. Less than
one year later, that is exactly what is happening in various California
jurisdictions where MSN has been passed.

The ominous line "I know who you are and I know where you live" used to
be a ridiculous cliche from horror movies that people like me mock -
material used as a joke. Well, the humor's been sucked out of that one.

It's come to my attention that the entire state of Maine may have
become Exhibit A.

I want to write an in-depth article on intimidation by AR groups, and
the effects upon democracy of anti-pet legislation. I have to wonder
how many people no longer "officially" live at their physical address
(even those who have never been openly targeted or harassed) because
they live in areas where anti-pet legislation has been passed. What is
so insidious about this, is that we are denied a voice in our local
government - the ability to vote for our own representatives, and the
opportunity to affect the laws that rule our lives.

The goal is to have this article published in a national magazine like
Time or Newsweek, so that "the rest of the world" will finally begin to
understand what we already know. I believe this kind of dissemination
of truth is our only chance of taking back lost ground.

Smart money says that most of those reading this who have been fighting
anti-pet legislation for more than a year already have a list in their
minds of people I should interview. Those reading this who don't belong
to pet-legislation- awareness Lists don't have a clue what I'm talking
about.

It seems preposterous to think that American citizens are being
silenced. America - that's the freedom-loving, boisterous nation,
right? If memory serves, this is the country whose original flag was a
coiled rattlesnake, with the words, "DON'T TREAD ON ME."

Americans going quiet because they're afraid of other Americans?
Impossible.

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this
continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation,
or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long
endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to
dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those
who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether
fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate --
we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who
struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or
detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say
here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the
living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they
who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to
be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from
these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which
they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly
resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this
nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that
government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not
perish from the earth. "

This country is a glorious idea, one so spectacular and so perfect that
it's come to seem bulletproof. And therein lies the danger.

Think two centuries is a long time? Snap your fingers. Take a look at
the history of civilization. All the great societies fall from
within.

The very foundation of America is being systematically undermined - and
it happened on our watch.

I know that there are thousands of List members reading this who have
worked tirelessly to stem the tide. We can't "do it alone."

It's my heartfelt belief that in 2009, we must make it our mission to
alert the world.

I have a hunch this may evolve into a series of articles, but to begin,
I would like to interview those who have been targeted,
threatened and harassed "specifically" by AR groups, i.e., phone calls,
emails, physical contacts, visits from AC, etc...

Permission to cross-post, and feel free to reply privately.

Tina Perriguey
AllianceDogSport@ aol.com