Paris: Animal rights activists seize puppy from homeless man

[ingemann]

Alternate title; animal rights activists decides to make the worst PR move in the history of mankind.

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http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/paris-animal-rights-activists-seize-puppy-homeless-man-1521093

[bagelman]

I heard about this before. Did the homeless man get his puppy back?

[dead0man]

Remember when they went after Spielberg for killing a Triceratops?

[Beezer]

Apparently the organization is rather racist as well.

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[Antonio the Sixth]

Utterly disgusting.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Utterly disgusting.

[bgwah]

The vegetarian reign of terror continues.

[Alcon]

This is obviously dumb, but what's the point of this besides moral outrage at crazy activists?  Activists of marginal causes be crazy, sure, and they always have been.  But there are vastly more important issues around animal welfare than this, and attacking the crazy activists sometimes seems like a pretext for ignoring those concerns.

[DavidB.]

The animal rights organization says that the homeless man, who is supposedly Romani, had drugged the dog in order to keep it calm, and that's why they took it away from him. Not sure whether to believe this story, since there is zero evidence for it, but it could be true, because people generally like to ignore homeless people yet they will approach a cute dog and possibly give money to its owner - sad, but that is how the world works. Nonetheless, even if it is true, that doesn't give this organization the right to take away the dog from the homeless man.

Did the homeless man get his puppy back?

Nope, doesn't seem to be the case.

[Zioneer]

Wow, I really hate the "radical" animal rights groups. They are the worst (see PETA and its bad reputation for killing the animals it "saves"). Regular, non crazy animal rights organizations are fine, but these guys are just out of line. I'm sure they picked on this guy because they knew he couldn't fight back.

[kcguy]

I have some bad blood against animal rights' groups.

I remember the days of the AIDS crisis, when PETA protested using animals in drug testing that would save human lives.

Any organization that can make ACT-UP look like "The Establishment" pretty much defines the lunatic fringe.

[Simfan34]

This is obviously dumb, but what's the point of this besides moral outrage at crazy activists?  Activists of marginal causes be crazy, sure, and they always have been.  But there are vastly more important issues around animal welfare than this, and attacking the crazy activists sometimes seems like a pretext for ignoring those concerns.

No one likes animal rights groups and it's good to feel angry after reminding ourselves from time to time.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

I wouldn't refer to PETA as "radical". They are more of an established group of stuntpeople, and they're good at their stated aim: to get attention at any possible situation. There the kind of group that enjoys people disliking them.

[SWE]

This is obviously dumb, but what's the point of this besides moral outrage at crazy activists?  

We need to pretend that fringe groups like these are actually relevant in order to justify our religious opposition to animal rights.

[Alcon]

This is obviously dumb, but what's the point of this besides moral outrage at crazy activists?  Activists of marginal causes be crazy, sure, and they always have been.  But there are vastly more important issues around animal welfare than this, and attacking the crazy activists sometimes seems like a pretext for ignoring those concerns.

No one likes animal rights groups and it's good to feel angry after reminding ourselves from time to time.

This stuff is a stunt meant to bring attention to animal welfare concerns.  These groups are fringe groups, and sometimes, they're intentionally being absurd because they're involved in a very marginal cause, and that's how marginal groups get attention.  You know, like nearly every minority political cause ever (including ones that we now think were right).  This is a lot like responding to concerns about the treatment of gays in the 1970s-1980s by being like, "no guys let's talk about how flamboyant their parades are!!!".

[Except this is somehow possibly even dumber (!), since it's not like the animals are the ones behaving absurdly in this case, but they are the ones whose welfare concerns we're using this as a pretext to dismiss.]

[Silent Hunter]

Is there a French equivalent to the RSPCA?

[MaxQue]

Is there a French equivalent to the RSPCA?

The SPA.

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

Is there an issue with animals being used in inappropriate ways? Sure. But, there was no evidence this puppy was mistreated, as someone who has spent a lot of time in Paris, I'm amazed at how well taken care of the animals of homeless people are. I remember talking to this young lady who would sit at night near the BHV with a little ginger kitten in her coat. She was always appreciative of the money I would give her and I would see her occasionally going into the supermarket and come out with animal food. Sure, there's an orchestrated and horrid begging 'industry' in many European cities, Paris being one of the most affected, but that's not the issue here.  I don't see them too concerned about the abuse and child prostitution...

Simfan, as is standard has taken a reasonable idea and made it too broad. There's nothing wrong with animal rights or animal welfare organisations, what matters is their tactics and their connection to reality. These groups have led the closure of many battery chicken plants, kitten and puppy farms, and increasing awareness of animal welfare practices.

The fact that they felt the need to highlight that the homeless man was a Roma, is problem 1. Then tried to suggest that the puppy's howls were based on it being drugged, not it's fear. No evidence provided that the puppy was drugged. They also clearly spent time figuring out the right person to pounce on. It looks like Les Halles, an area well known for its homelessness ... they had a choice and went for the guy who they thought wouldn't fight back. Then they named the poor thing 'Vegan' "to align with our beliefs" For God's sake. Is it possible this dog will end up with a better life than if it were on the street? Probably. But that wasn't that fringe group's right to decide.

[DavidB.]

Is it possible this dog will end up with a better life than if it were on the street? Probably. But that wasn't that fringe group's right to decide.

I actually consider it quite likely that the dog was drugged, because I don't really see why an animal rights group would otherwise take some random homeless guy's dog - I don't buy the "they did it because he was homeless" story. It is simply true that there is an industry for cute puppies, which are drugged by homeless people, and which are then drowned by the homeless person when they grow up (=less cute) - the homeless person "adopting" a new puppy in order to beg for money. And it is also sadly true that this custom seems to be more common among Romani beggars, which makes his ethnicity relevant to the story.

Nonetheless, the part of your text that I quoted is basically essence of the story, and you're totally right about that. The animal rights group was wrong. If they thought the dog was drugged, then they should have called the police.

[Yelnoc]

What is it with this shlt? I heard the same thing happened in Oakland last week. Liberals need to leave people alone.

[Silent Hunter]

If the puppy was being abused, it should have been ceased by the proper authorities. This doesn't appear to be the case here.

[Green Line]

This homeless man was obviously using the puppy to get more donations because of its cuteness.  Exploitation!  Cute puppies deserve to be in good homes not begging on the street.

[Antonio the Sixth]

This homeless man was obviously using the puppy to get more donations because of its cuteness.  Exploitation!  Cute puppies deserve to be in good homes not begging on the street.

It's not surprising to see conservatives care more about the welfare of puppies than that of homeless people...

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

What is it with this shlt? I heard the same thing happened in Oakland last week. Liberals need to leave people alone.

These people aren't Liberals, they're fanatics.

[Alcon]

is anyone going to stop arguing over these random fringe people who are like 1/1000th of the population at most, and we all effectively agree on, and actually respond to what i'm saying?  anyone?