(I did copy/paste from old website and some of this did not copy correctly. I am working on it presently)

Saving the Maine Coon:

The Maine Coon cat has a lovely long history, and it is great fun reading all the stories. These cats are also doing great in the present day and time and have a great many fans. But do they have a future? There are many modern-day people who are out to stop the breeding and future of our beloved Maine Coon cats. Do we sit by and let the activist groups stop all the time, work and love invested in our breed? It is time to educate and arm yourself to help save this magnificent breed. There are animal rights groups in every state, and they are out to stop the breeding, as well as the ownership, of any pedigreed animal. Since they are clever in their wording, they can trick many people into agreeing with them. You must be careful. They are not out to keep pets safe and stop abuse, as they have said in literature. They are not out to limit breeders in their animals (although they do this in many states), and they are not out to protect the consumer (although there are bills coming up in many states saying this). Read the websites and you will find out a very different story. We are only going to touch on the clubs and their motives, but it is up to you, as an individual, to WORK to protect what you love. The two main groups we speak of here are HSUS (Humane Society of the United States) and PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). Do not be fooled as their names imply something they are not. Read on and you will know the truth about them, as well as checking out their own websites. There is more to them than the names imply. Removing ownership of pets is a priority to these groups for many reasons. They like the power, as do any wealthy groups, and are extremely good at their use of money to change the laws, as they want. As long as you own any animal, it cannot be taken from you without a lengthy process in court. Our constitution protects you, and what you own. BUT, if things are changed, the way the groups are working at now, and you become a guardian of an animal, then your rights will be stripped away. The plan is to give the animal as much legal right as you and thus, they can then petition for an animal to be removed from its family, if you do not meet the aspect of their approval. We would, essentially, be giving these activists group power over us in all we do. I have heard people say in the USA, 'we are free and can do what we want.' Yes, but if we want our rights to continue, you will have to learn to fight to keep those rights.

Read the clip from the CFA website about the 'Trojan Horse' of changing 'pet ownership' to 'pet guardianship; the Trojan horse is taking on one of several different guises this year. The most prevalent, and seemingly innocuous, is to either change the term pet owner to pet guardian in all law in a jurisdiction, or to add it and call it interchangeable. This winter San Francisco became the only major city to join a handful of smaller cities, including West Hollywood and Berkeley, CA, Boulder, CO and others to adopt this change. The state of Rhode Island placed the pet guardian terminology into state law last year. Thousands of pet owners have been lulled by supporters of this campaign into believing that nothing of significance was changed. Their assertion is that is a benign sounding word that will improve society's treatment of animals and end their exploitation and abuse. However, this year the belly of the Trojan horse has opened, and the real intent is becoming clear. That intent is that ownership of animals should be ended, and that pets and other animals, including wildlife and food animals, be awarded the same legal protection that human children have. Some animal lovers might find this idea appealing until the real ramifications of such a move are known. Continue with the CFA website and read stories of what is changing in cities and states as the activist groups finally show their true motives. It will scare you! There are many websites to read all the information and for most of you, it will be easy to read and understand. They have done their work already and have used misleading advertising to draw the rest of you into their web. Their mail speaks of animal welfare and has faces of sad kittens and puppies on their envelopes, which will bring many of you to get out your checkbook. RESIST, I beg you! The Cat Fanciers Association (CFA) and The International Cat Association (TICA) both have a legislative page to get you involved in local stuff. Read up! Laws are being passed in states where the people knew nothing of them until the laws are on the books. Then, it takes lots of money and time to get a law changed. That is the point for these activists' groups. Many states have already enacted laws that sound okay for many people who do not research the fine print and consequences of the new laws.

Let us use Maine for instance. They have passed a law requiring that any pet animal breeder be limited to six breeding animals and have the state come into their home and inspect at any time. There are rules on amounts of bowls, litter pans etc. and there have to be a strict following to the rules, or you are fined steep fees. Some of the dog breeders in Maine were duped to follow along and encourage the passage of this into law. It was partly due to some of them having only 1 or 2 batches of puppies a year and they then thought this was a good way to remove puppy and kitten mills. It sounds good right? All of us have seen or known someone who was ripped-off from a puppy or kitten mill! But a law like this one in Maine only serves one purpose; that is to put someone else in charge over you and what you do. This is their first step, and it never sounds bad to pass a law like this. What you have to do however, is to read the websites and newsletters of the groups sponsoring the bills that show up in our state legislature. Otherwise, they go about getting laws passed without our knowledge. Here is a clip from the CFA website alert page about Los Angelos, CA: Because of existing limits on the numbers of animals allowed without a kennel permit and the fact that LA zoning laws do not allow catteries/kennels in residential areas it is unlikely that any cat breeder with a breeding program would be able to comply with this ordinance even if they wanted to. It has become clear that the intention was not to permit breeding, but instead to force dog and cat breeders to discontinue their breeding activity all together. Much of the support for the ordinance came from national organizations with local members who saw their chance to advance the message of the immorality, of breeding companion animals. The climate in LA was ripe. Since you are not a breeder, do you then think it does not affect you? Many people own mutt cats and dogs, neutered and spayed, having full vet care and tons of love and devotion. This makes you safe then, right? NOPE, it just puts you on their list after the breeder. They intend to keep you from owning pets, aquariums, and even farm animals. You may not care too much for the list of goals the animal rights activists have except the one of animal pet ownership. But, if you allow them to keep passing laws, they will never stop. They believe that animals should be completely separate from humankind. Their goal is to guarantee that the human race has absolutely no access to animals, no matter how important they are for our survival, progress or pleasure. Ending pet ownership, seeing-eye dogs, or any other animal hobby or job you may know of, is just the beginning of their plans. They also want to end the eating of meat. Since there are thousands of us who love our meat, eggs, cheese, yogurt (and the list goes on), they cannot just pass laws to stop our raising, butchering or eating of meat. So how can they stop us? They will make it harder and harder on the farmer until he can no longer afford to keep the animals and has to sell them all. In the meantime, the price of everything goes higher and higher until you can no longer afford a hamburger or dozen eggs. If you choose to become a vegetarian, you will probably live longer than those of us who love to eat meat, but in the free country we live in, nobody has the right to stop the eating of meat, fish, or even the wearing of leather or silk or wool. Remember the next time you see on TV or a printed document suffering cows or chickens; this is part of the plan to get you to join their cause. Maybe the animals need better facilities and care, but there are other ways to get this done. Forcing farmers to end the raising of their food animals is not the way to go.

Here is a clip from one website: According to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, human beings are just another animal species, no more special or important than a snail darter or dairy cow. The group believes, as one commentator put it, that animal trainers, hunters, fishermen, cattlemen, grocers, and indeed all non-vegetarians are the moral equivalent of cannibals, slave-owners, and death-camp guards; Newkirk insists that the world would be a better place without people: Humans have grown like a cancer. We're the biggest blight on the face of the earth. What else is on their plate for us? They want to eliminate Zoos, Circus, Farms, Pet ownership, as well as end any laboratory testing done to help find a cure for human diseases. Although you may feel sorry for lab animals (which is 90% rats), they are very important. If you want a cure to be found for cancer, or find a way to stop diabetes, or even test drugs or products for humans to use; then some animal testing must be done. Until we live in a world where there are no diseases or sicknesses, we do not have a choice in this. You can disagree with me all you want because it is a free world (much of it anyway), but do not burn my house down or run me off the road to kill me just to shut me up. Too many of the animal rights activists are doing this (and worse) and they have so much money, that they think they cannot be stopped. To start out, we must stop their income. When you receive a letter in the mail from the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and it has puppies and kittens on the envelope, rip it up and throw it away. Give your money to a local humane society who ACTUALLY works to save cats and dogs. The HSUS has no work or interests in animal welfare at all. A few years ago, this HSUS accumulated $113 million in assets and yet does not own or operate one single animal shelter! How much do they spend to save animals per state? ZERO! I could not find any information online that showed any organizations of theirs, at the time of the writing of this book that showed any donations to actual animal welfare groups. I have however, found websites speaking of the $2 million spent on travel expenses, as well as the $11 million they pay in salaries and $3 million in benefits and pension contributions. And they are said to spend $15.7 million on fundraising expenses, most of which benefit them. Remember the free HSUS address labels and mail that you get in your mailbox? Their mail speaks of unspecified work on behalf of dogs, puppies, cats, kittens. They refer to you as true pet lovers for supporting them, and all of this as a ploy for you to send your money when they do not support any dogs, puppies, cats or kittens in any way that I could find. I have received their mailings and I never knew they were not an actual pet humane society, until I started reading on the CFA website. From there, I have found so many websites and links to more websites. There is a lot of information for you to read up on. Do not be misguided folks, support your REAL local humane societies in any way you can, but do not support the HSUS, PETA or any of their owned affiliates. Your money should not be supporting anti-pet laws, or violence. PETA supports Environmentalist groups that believe violence is the way to their goal, no matter the consequences. On the Activist cash website, we found this little clip: PETA also has given $2,000 to David Wilson, then a national ALF spokesperson; The group paid $27,000 for the legal defense of Roger Troen, who was arrested for taking part in an October 1986 burglary and arson at the University of Oregon. It gave $7,500 to Fran Stephanie Trutt, who tried to murder the president of a medical laboratory. It gave $5,000 to Josh Harper, who attacked Native Americans on a whale hunt by throwing smoke bombs, shooting flares, and spraying their faces with chemical fire extinguishers. All of these monies were paid out of tax-exempt funds, the same pot of money constantly enlarged by donations from an unsuspecting general public. The websites given will list many of the radical groups they own or support and the law-breaking tactics that they use and get away with (money is the root of all evil; remember hearing that from the good ol Bible?) Be wary, these websites may make you cry. Actual photos are shown of pets that PETA kills and dumps, and you may have a hard time seeing these photos. (I did) It made me angry enough though to decide to stop these groups. I hope you are willing to join this fight!

Contact your state legislators and make sure they know that you disagree with these activist groups. But do be careful. People have been hurt or killed just for working for a place that went against the policies of these groups. You can read much of this going on in England, Europe and the USA. You may not be safe just for standing up for what you believe in. We cannot however leave this alone if our pet family members mean anything to us. If you love the Maine Coon cat and have one, or plan to get one, just remember there may not be any more in a few years if we do nothing. Do not let them dictate the future. Stop them by stopping their money. Spread the word, one person and email at a time. Let us keep our beloved pets and enjoy them to the max! Protect the future of the Maine Coon Cat!