Installing A Puppy Government

Apparently the Tea Party hates the government so much that they are viciously fighting anti-puppy mill abuse laws in Missouri.

The measure, which can be read in full here, is called Proposition B or the "Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act." It aims to help eliminate the "3000 puppy mills" in Missouri that constitute "30% of all puppy mills in the U.S.," according to Michael Markarian, the Chief Operating Officer of the Humane Society.

"This measure would provide common sense standards for the care of dogs," he told TPM, including sufficient food and clean water, vet care, regular exercise, and adequate rest between breeding cycles, among other things. Markarian said the measure only applies to "commercial dog breeding facilities" that have more than 10 breeding females who they use for "producing puppies for the pet trade."

Sounds pretty straightforward, no?

Well, according to the Alliance For Truth, the main force behind the anti-Prop B movement, there is something much more nefarious afoot (er, apaw) in the Humane Society's measure. The Alliance For Truth claims that the Humane Society of the United States has a "radical agenda" and is "misleading the public with its intentions on Prop B. The society seeks only to raise the cost of breeding dogs, making it ever-more difficult for middle-class American families to be dog-owners."

Anita Andrews from Alliance For Truth told TPM that it's a "deceptive, lying bill" that is "trying to purposefully get rid of the breeders." The state of Missouri, she said, has been given a bad rap as "the puppy mill capitol" of the U.S. but "in truth we have the best ribbon breeders in the country." And, Andrews said, the state already has anti-cruelty laws on the books.

"They don't like animals," she said of the Humane Society. 

You know, at some point, you have to accept that legislation serves a purpose.  As a matter of fact, at some point you have to accept that government itself serves a purpose.  Apparently if you are a teabagger, there is no purpose to government or government regulation, and we should all really just shut up and listen to the people with the money, because their rich and al smarter than us and we should trust them to look out for us in some sort of anarcho-capitalist collective.

You know, companies like BP and Goldman Sachs and Blackwater.  They're all good eggs.

Seriously, if you can't bring yourself to say "Hey, puppy mills are inhumane and they should be more regulated, especially given the number of stray and abandoned animals in this country" then I wonder if you have human compassion at all.