I don't usually like to come out and question another organizations motive.

I have recently said that IFCNR really does not want to make political statements.

Today however, after reading the following statement from the National Rifle Association I think IFCNR has to say something in plain language.

"Please Contact the Members of the Senate Finace Committee!

On Thursday, April 30, the Senate Commerce Committee passed Senate Bill 460, a bill actively supported by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and intended to put dog breeders and kennel owners out of business. S 460 will now head to the Finance Committee, where a hearing has yet to be scheduled.

S 460, sponsored by State Senator Don Davis (D-5), is an even more divisive version of House Bill 733. Senator Davis version of this bill has completely removed the language that would have allowed the breeding of hunting dogs, even though the exemption in HB 733 was ineffective and a feigned attempt at a compromise with hunters. HSUS says it is only trying to regulate massive, overcrowded puppy mills, but this is part of the same old lie. The fact is that they want to ban all hunting in America, especially hunting with dogs, since it radically opposes animal ownership.

Remember that HSUS' President, Wayne Pacelle, told the Associated Press, 'If we could shut down all sport hunting in a moment, we would.' HSUS spends $120 million a year to lobby and litigate against hunters and animal owners. Pacelle understands that an outright hunting ban is not realistic today so his group practices incrementalism. He will take it piece by piece and he has said so publicly. Dont allow HSUS to take this critical first step in North Carolina. It is imperative that you contact the members of the Senate Finance Committee TODAY and voice your opposition to S 460.

Contact information for the committee members can be found here."

The NRA has its head up its ass on this issue of puppy mills and that simply shows how out of touch they are with most Americans and on this issue, the truth.

There is no way the abolishment of puppy mills can or would threaten hunting or hunting with dogs, this is just the NRA being ignorant.

Most hunters who use dogs get their dogs from reputable breeders who have records of decent and proud bloodlines and whose dogs have reputations for their hunting abilities be they pointers or hounds or even rabbit-chasing beagles.

I personally have no love for the HSUS and I understand that the NRA and many sportsmen groups hate the fact that part of the HSUS agenda is to end hunting.

But as my grandmother always said, dont throw the baby out with the bathwater. The fact of the matter is puppy mills are just plain bad.

If HSUS is so nefarious that somehow in the proposed bill, which I have read three times, that they have secret language to end hunting then I am too stupid to see it.

Especially when twice in the preamble where it says "EXCLUDING KENNELS OR ESTABLISHMENTS OPERATED FOR THE PURPOSE OF BOARDING OR TRAINING HUNTING, SPORTING, HERDING, SHOW, OR WORKING DOGS" (lines 5-7) and "WHEREAS, NOTHING IN THIS ACT SHALL BE CONSTRUED TO INTERFERE WITH AN INDIVIDUAL'S RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN HUNTING AND WORKING ACTIVITIES WITH DOGS";(lines 13-16) and in the body of the bill under definitions "COMMERCIAL BREEDER" MEANS ANY PERSON WHO OWNS OR MAINTAINS 15 OR MORE INTACT FEMALE DOGS OF BREEDING AGE AND 30 OR MORE PUPPIES PRIMARILY FOR THE PURPOSE OF SALE. THIS SHALL NOT INCLUDE KENNELS OR ESTABLISHMENTS OPERATED FOR THE PURPOSE OF BOARDING OR TRAINING HUNTING, SPORTING, HERDING, SHOW, OR WORKING DOGS" (lines 14-16) the language specifically exempts any operation using dogs for hunting, sporting, herding, show or working dogs.

I mean how far can an animal rights group or any group bend over, to kiss another groups proverbial behind.

This is exactly the stupidity and the single-issue ignorance that makes the NRA very vulnerable and cries out for the need of a rational and intelligent organization supporting gun owners and working to empower all Americans.

The NRA should just come out and support dog fighting, greyhound racing, bear baiting, and blood coursing so they are in step with the rest of medieval England circa 1701. I know many devoted and ethical hunters, who like myself find puppy mills horrific and this article we read today in North Carolina's Washington Daily News, "Legislature Considering Puppy Mill Regulations (22 Feb 2010) does not even begin to list the horrors our "best friends" face in these assembly line production breed operations. Over 300 puppy mills now reside in the State of North Carolina, specifically because no regulations currently govern how they house, feed and care for their dogs.

IFCNR strongly supports every state and national effort to abolish these operations and would especially support a Federal ban on any and all commercial puppy mill operations and all sales, transport and any actions that cross state lines.

It is appalling given the love and affection and assistance that dogs provide to all of us from regular dog loving owners, to kids with disabilities, to our soldiers and law enforcement officers, to search and rescue operations, to patients in our hospices, to our handicapped citizens such as the blind and deaf, and the list continues, that we still allow these animals to be bred, housed, and raised in grotesque, inhumane, and disease-filled conditions and then transported and sold and, If they can't be sold, discarded like damaged vegetables or other non-sentient items.

IFCNR hates puppy mills with a passion and we pray for the day they all are abolished.

If IFCNR has misunderstood or misrepresented the current NRA view then we apologize but if the NRA is supporting puppy mills out of fear that somehow the end of this horrific practice and treatment of our best friends is seen as a threat to hunting, then the NRA does have its head up its ass and it needs to pull It out and see the sunshine.

Pet lovers are not going to buy silliness and paranoia. Many of them hunt and own guns.

Puppy Mills are barbaric, archaic and it is time to legislate them to extinction.