Animal Rights Protest

I would like to take issue with the commentary on April 30 (“Protest in Wrong Place, Wrong Time”) by Diane Calkins and Rosemary Shelton regarding the picket demonstration held at the San Diego Animal Control Department, of which the organization STOP (Stop Taking Our Pets) was a part. I am a board member of Friends of County Animal Shelters, a member of Fund for Animals, Animal Advocacy and STOP, to name a few.

First, I believe both Ms. Calkins and Ms. Shelton were missing the thrust of the entire demonstration. STOP was not demonstrating against the volunteers who work at the shelters. STOP recognizes and applauds the work done by the volunteers in the shelters in their efforts to help the animals. STOP also applauds the adoption program at the shelters.

The thrust of the picketing was against the use of pets for animal research, and both Calkins and Shelton agreed that they “adamantly opposed any shelter animal being used or abused by researchers.” As with all demonstrations, a focal point has to be used to bring attention to the public that this abhorrent use of pets for research goes on, and that these pets are obtained from our very own shelters. Shelters that we, the taxpayers, support.

Granted, the Department of Animal Control is an unfortunate pawn in this travesty of animal lives, being caught in the middle of a very grave situation, that of being part of a program dictated by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. However, other county shelters throughout the state of California have been influential in helping break such contracts by taking stands against the use of pets for research. Some staff and heads of departments have put their jobs on the line and just said “NO!” to such atrocities. In fact, San Diego County is one of the last four counties in the whole state that partake in such programs.

It is my hope that the public will do a massive letter campaign to the Board of Supervisors to end the use of our lost and abandoned pets for such atrocities. I also believe that such persons as Ms. Calkins and Ms. Shelton, although their hearts seem to be in the right place, should work to end such a practice and applaud the efforts of organizations such as STOP. Animal welfare groups attacking animal welfare groups is a total misplacement of energy that could be used in saving more animal lives.

PHYLLIS MEYERS

San Diego