The Flushed Puppy Case, PETA, and Plumbers

Absolutely everyone who writes about dogs or children seems to have something to say about the four-year-old boy who flushed a week-old puppy down the toilet. Okay. I’ll bite. I’ll say that while parents should keep an eye on their children and breeders should keep an eye on their puppies, nobody can possibly think of every possibility. For that matter, no adult can think of the range of possibilities for amusement and experimentation that a four-year-old child can. I have enough trouble keeping up with these allegedly-mentally-inferior four-month-old rescued pups.

Things happen (the usual form of this might be appropriate to the toilet-and-sewer part, but not to the age of the child in question).

However, a comment in one of the blogged versions I read was “Where is PETA?” This actually did bother me. PETA’s stance on breeders – ALL breeders – may be found at http://www.peta.org/campaigns/ar-responsiblebreeders.asp by anyone willing to look. In fact, reading the mission statements of any group you think you support is always a good idea. How PETA handles the cases it handles may be found at http://www.petakillsanimals.com/index.cfm with links to legal documentation. You may find that puppy-flushing looks pretty innocuous after that second link, though.

Where is PETA? Doing what it always does: drumming up money. Far better to just call the plumber.