Jill Rants and Raves: the conservative animal right

I've been able to tread a relatively fine line running down the middle of my psyche - and until now it's worked out alright to be a fierce and passionate defender of animals while fending off the accusations that I care more for them than I do about people. My engagement with animal welfare activism was always rooted in my deep sense of fairness, justice and my deep belief that animal rights issues are as much about human beings as they are about the animals.

But there has always been a lingering discomfort that while 'pure' animal rights - the defense of the wild - gorillas, elephants and whales - has been aligned with those on the left of the spectrum (Greenpeace, In Defense Of Animals, PETA) the 'domestic animal welfare' movement has been more identified with middle aged ladies who never had any kids whose political activity ends at the local humane society volunteer booth. Right wing radio and media personalities have been for many years vocal and active participants in the protection of domestic animal companions. Even while their gun toting huntin' companions were shooting to kill every wild beast that crossed their path.

When a bichon was ripped from its' owners arms after a minor traffic altercation and thrown into oncoming cars and killed, the outpouring of horror, sympathy and of money to pursue and prosecute the offender niggled at many who wondered why so many cared about a small fluffy white thing. It seemed to many that while millions of children live in poverty, while innocents were being blown to pieces in conflicts around the world, while human eyes stared into the cameras pleading for mercy in crisis after crisis around the globe, how could we prioritize a creature which is not our equal.

Conservative Matthew Scully, speechwriter for Cheney and for Bush, picked up that chord and elaborated on it when he wrote eloquently in his astonishing book 'Dominion' that it is precisely because they are subservient, because they are subject to our control, our will, our benevolence or our cruelty, that we must be stewards of animals. Animals born or bred as food or domestic companions have no rights, they are not created equal, with 'inalienable rights', they have no free will and so we must be their protectors and defenders.

And it is that faith based obligation that Rush Limbaugh evokes in his new PSA for the Humane Society of the US. That the obligation we have towards ending cruelty and abandonment of animals is borne of a god given 'superiority'. Without naming the dark knights of the airwaves, whose crackling loathing of the left, of muslims, of gays, of feminists, of Obama, of the unions and teachers, of clipped haired lesbians, of the 'homo agenda' fuels a seething rage across Amerika, Rush is talking about his good friend Mark Levin in particular and others on the right whose sentimentality about animals is not matched by compassion for two leggers unlike themselves. Mark Levin is one of the most powerful and vitriolic left-baiters in radio. His high pitched spitting vulgarity seems completely at odds with his soft, furry eulogies to his animal companions - and his heartwarming story in the book 'Rescuing Sprite' evokes the joy of saving an animal from a shelter. And Michael Savage who sits atop a garbage pile of insults about me and mine has spoken quite openly of leaving his considerable fortune to animal welfare groups.

Limbaugh's PSA reaches across the aisle in a condescending nod to those liberals who he credits with having some redeeming morality. How could that be? We don't have religion. We don't believe in the Almighty. Many of us are agnostic or atheist. But, oh my god - we are moral human beings? Who knew? Where could that moral and spiritual relationship with other creatures possibly have come from?

And it is odd timing - that at this moment in history when anti gay sentiment is being prodded and provoked by these titans of taunt more so than ever before - that the right should be showing its softer side. While gay and transgender suicides are on the increase, while bullying of young gay boys is rising, these men are embracing the humane welfare movement which, if you were to remove all the queers working in it would come to a crunching halt.

It is this intersection which is most troubling to me - do I simply accept that occasionally one finds oneself aligned with enemies, do I take their money for my cause, do I take the checks and run, or do I say ' this just isn't going to work for me'. This compromise is one notch too far on the belt of mutual do-gooding. I'm vermin to them. And this mouse isn't about to stop roaring.