Jana's Journal

On page 53 of the book, the 'before and after' photos of Emmy should be credited to: Jackie Pittenger (before) and Debra Anderson Vogt (after).

On page 52-54 of the book, the undercover testimony should be credited to Puppy Mill Rescue. Please visit www.PuppyMillRescue.com to learn more about their important work. They are our heros. Please support them generously.

Pretty is as pretty does.

So it is with pretty women in pretty outfits who walk into pet stores and plunk down a pretty penny for a puppy.

Don’t these pretty women know that puppies sold at pet stores come from the most hideous places on earth? Don’t they know that the purchase of a pet store or Internet puppy results in ugly consequences for that puppy’s parents, who are locked in cages their entire lives and used as breeding machines, never allowed to walk on grass or see the sun, covered in feces and urine every day of their miserable lives? I wonder how the poor mother of that pet store or Internet puppy would look in the pretty woman’s expensive pet carrier? Would the stench of her feces-covered, urine-soaked matted coat clash with her expensive perfume?

I love pretty things as much as the next girl and have been known to spend a silly sum for a variety of indulgencies, but I’ve come to see that compassion is much more chic than cruelty. Pet store and Internet puppies are so embarrassingly tacky, girls! You might as well have toilet paper trailing out of the top of your $500 jeans.

I know some very beautiful women who feel likewise, who decided to spend several Saturdays in a row protesting a Beverly Hills pet store instead of lunching with the ladies or shopping on nearby Rodeo Drive. These gorgeous gals knew that something needed to be done about their local pet store. The high-priced puppies for sale there came from puppy mills, like all pet store puppies do. These lovely ladies camped out there for 17 Saturdays in a row, letting the public know the truth about the link between puppy mills and pet stores. Their dedication paid off when the store finally closed its’ doors. I tell people about these heavenly heroines as I make my way across the nation with another beauty – a 3-legged dog named Baby who survived one of those grotesque puppy mills.

Our book, A Rare Breed of Love: the true story of Baby and the mission she inspired to help dogs everywhere features some other beautiful people like Barack Obama, Judge Judy and Bill Maher, who all know that there’s nothing chic or glamorous about cruelty – there’s nothing hip, trendy, cool or attractive about supporting an industry where dogs are tortured every day of their lives. Baby had her vocal cords cut so the owners wouldn’t have to listen to her cries to be let out of her cage, and her leg was amputated after her rescue because of the hellish life she was forced to endure as a breeding dog. Today Baby has a name instead of a number and a loving home where she will live out the rest of her days in the loving arms of her Ma (me).

The people who buy puppies at pet stores and on the Internet must be reminded that they don’t look very attractive with a puppy mill dog on their arm. Cruel just ain’t cool, girls. Fashion comes and goes, but compassion is timeless and never goes out of style. If you really want to be the envy of everyone on the block, give a forever home to a dog in need. You’ll look prettier on the outside when your inner beauty is allowed to shine through.

After writing a book for the past 3-1/2 years, and planning a cross-country schlep to raise awareness about puppy mills, the only thing I feel like writing is a note to the mailman - "Gone to Disneyland."

But as bone-tired as I am, I have something to get off my chest.

When it comes to our efforts to help abused animals, injustices occur every day. The abusers go unpunished and modest reforms that might ease animal suffering go nowhere because of influential lobbyists and corrupt politicians who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.

So it was in Chicago a few weeks ago when Mayor Richard Daley, Alderman Tom Tunney and the Chicago City Council reversed a law that many had worked long and hard to pass- the ban on the sale of 'foie gras' in that city.

In case you don't know, this 'delicacy of despair' is produced by ramming metal pipes down the throats of ducks and geese three times a day to force-feed them until their livers swell to 10 times normal size. It's so cruel and inhumane that the procedure has been outlawed in more than a dozen countries around the world, including Israel and Poland.

Francis Cardinal George of Chicago condemns 'foie gras.' The Pope condemns it! But Daley is beholden to a higher authority- the Illinois Restaurant Association, who masterminded a repeal of the law with Tunney and Daley's help. Daley's bullying of Aldermen is legendary and this travesty lived up to his reputation. Council members who originally voted to ban this "taste of torture" suddenly decided- presto-chango- after arm-twisting by the dictatorial mayor, that torture of ducks and geese is a fine and law-abiding thing. Oh, did I forget to mention that the Mayor's former chief of staff, Sheila O'Grady, is now the president of the Illinois Restaurant Association? Theirs is as cozy a relationship as two engorged ducks crammed into a tiny wooden crate.

As a psychologist I ask myself who would actually go out of their way to defend animal torture, lobby for it, fight tooth and nail to bring such cruelty back after it had been outlawed? What kind of mental pathology allows an individual to see hard evidence of animal torture (which Daley and his gang did because I sent them the graphic photos and documentation) and says, "Who cares?" Who on earth could see the torn throats and imploded organs of those poor birds and laugh?

Yes, they laughed, calling an anti-cruelty measure "silly."

Here's what's really silly, although the word frightening is more apt-the fact that elected officials of such obvious psychological unfitness are making important decisions for the majority of us who cherish humane treatment of animals and who understand the link between our mistreatment of powerless creatures and the demise of our civilized society, not to mention our very souls. What's beyond silly- ludicrous in fact- is that even after the ban was passed in a landslide 48-1 vote, this gang of thugs came along a year later and said, "We don't' care about the 48-1 vote. We want our 'foie gras' back and we'll do anything to get it. We'll break the law any which way we can to get our way," which they did that dark day when they overturned the law without following proper parliamentary procedure.

And all those pathetic Aldermen- except for 6 brave and moral souls- allowed it to happen. The majority, who only a year before had agreed that foie gras was so egregiously cruel that it should be banned, now allowed their original vote of conscience and morality to be spat upon and called 'silly.' Grown men and women elected to public office allowed the bully in the schoolyard to twist their arms, persuading them to drop their morals and integrity as fast as you can say cowardly lion. Those pathetic excuses for public servants refused to stand up and speak out against cruelty or the tyranny that brought it back. As Arnold would say, they are nothing more than 'girlie men.' I think he'd call the female Alderwomen who showed their lack of moral backbone, "sissy girls." After all, as Governor of California, Arnold himself signed into law a state-wide ban of this barbaric treat.

We must ask what kind of pathologically perverse mind gets his jollies from knowing that he is fighting to restore animal abuse to the menu? Someone who has no business leading a city, let alone a chain gang- the latter being a place where Daley may possibly end up one day due to something that happens to be related- his alleged condoning of human torture while he was city attorney. Now there's a potentially fascinating and disturbing pattern-advocating torture of humans or animals- just another day at city hall.

I say eat up girlie men and sissy girls, because thanks to the good scientists at the University of Tennessee, we now know that eating the diseased liver called 'foie gras' is implicated in Alzheimers, arthritis and tuberculosis. Yes, what hurts the animals hurts us. When we force-feed them so their livers become so enlarged and diseased, they transmit deadly diseases onto us in a just form of nature's payback for the torture we inflicted upon them. The "taste of torture" will now refer to our own suffering when we contract one of those horrific diseases.

Which brings me to puppy mills, another industry based on torture and abuse-also run by unfeeling, frighteningly immoral characters who think nothing of sticking a scissors down a dog's throat to cut her vocal cords, as happened to Baby. An industry run by people who think it's 'silly' for us to be alarmed about puppy mills, places where dogs are locked away like criminals for life, never seeing the sun, never walking on grass, going insane in a tiny box year after year with no hope, no kindness, nothing but misery and pain. People who think it's 'silly' for us to be outraged by malnourished and diseased breeding dogs who are forced to bear litters every heat cycle until their poor battered bodies wear out and they're thrown away like garbage. Hee-hee, what a hoot!

These are the people who think Oprah was overreacting when, after seeing these 'houses of horror' as I call them, she was so appalled and distraught that she vowed to never buy a dog from a breeder again. These are people of the same morally repugnant ilk as the Mayor of Chicago and the Aldermen who allowed themselves to be led around by nose rings. These are people we must remove from office and from any position of authority that impacts our lives and our society, remove them from working with children, animals or any vulnerable and powerless creatures because they cannot be trusted. They have a perverse attraction to torture and abuse, whether inflicting it with their own hands or aiding and abetting others who do the dirty deed, in the form of lobbying against animal welfare reform, such as the Illinois Restaurant Association did and the AKC does (The American Kennel Club -- the 'Cruella de Ville' of dog breeding organizations).

These people are not working for the greater good; they are working for the greater greed. And we must not let them get away with it.

So this blog is dedicated to Mayor Daley, Alderman Tom Tunney, and the 36 cowards of the Chicago City Council, all of whom will go down in history as leading the charge to be the first U.S. city to vote for cruelty. I also dedicate this blog to the inhumane dog breeding industry. Villains one and all, guilty of perpetuating the worst kind of animal suffering and torture.

If you agree that Mayor Daley and the Chicago City Council must be held accountable for this travesty of justice, why not drop them a note to let them know how you feel about their decision to bring back cruelty? You can find them at www.CityofChicago.org. Maybe they'll reconsider if they receive thousands of letters telling them that you'd much rather visit a city where justice and humanity are held in high esteem by its' leaders.

I guess I'm never gonna get to Disneyland, and I want to go so badly. There are no puppy mills in Disneyland. And no corrupt politicians.