Dog Worship and SARS

Dog Worship and SARS
by Carole Wade, Contributing Columnist

September 8, 2003

Contributing Columnist Carole Wade Writer's forward: For my American Partisan essays, "Is Pet Ownership Destroying the Lives of Americans?" and "PETS, CHILDREN, DISEASE, AND CULTURE," I carefully researched each article. Now, my accurate research has given me much more credibility because the September 4, 2003, mainstream newspapers (specifically an Associated Press article carried in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) and media are reporting exactly what I discussed in American Partisan earlier this year: my statements concerning SARS and dogs were correct. Scientists have proven that SARS is carried and spread by dogs.

Many readers of my essays are dog worshipers who are extremely hostile to the truth about their pets. But the airing of an honest opinion is fundamental to America's good health. Dogs carry and spread diseases including SARS. The fifty billion dollars a year Pet Industry has "stampeded" dog owners with its fraudulent statement, "Pets provide companionship." But this statement is untrue....

Treating dogs as full-fledged family members can backfire onto their human owners. Lonely women and lonely men are turning to their dogs as confidants. This is a corrupt message for they are actually saying, "I have made a pro-dog/anti-child decision." Animal attachment has many warnings. The first one: treating your dog as a child who barks. Dog owners have crossed "healthy" boundaries through their obsession with their dogs.

Non-dog owners deserve our freedom of association. We deserve and demand to live and travel in "No Dog Zones" for our own and for our families' safety. Dog owners are loathe to hear this: our concern about contracting SARS from a neighbor's dog -- whether in a residence or in an office or in a hotel lobby or in a shopping mall -- is very real.

It is a fact dogs carry and are responsible for the spread of SARS. The "raccoon dog" is found in Western Europe, Russia, China, and Japan. The pet raccoon dog -- often raised on farms in China -- is a dog that happens to look like a North American raccoon (hence its name). The pet raccoon dog has a chunky body, fat strong legs, small ears, and a bushy tail. Its fur is short and its teeth are canine -- small and sharp. It behaves like all other dogs (unlike true raccoons which spend much time in water).

SARS jumped from animals to humans. (Sources: Harvard University and Colorado Health Sciences.) According to these studies, the virus mutated from the animal and spread to humans through close contact. First dog owners exposed us to Monkeypox; now SARS is linked to dogs. SARS was first discovered in China, then spread to Hong Kong, and soon afterwards to more than thirty other countries. More than 7,900 people worldwide developed SARS and more than 800 died this year.

A few short years ago, the fifty billion dollars a year Pet Industry teamed up with its advertising agency cronies and dreamed up two new buzz words for dogs: "rescued dogs" and "mixed breeds." Animal shelters today acknowledge that many so-called "rescued dogs" are imported from the Caribbean island country of Jamaica (but often originate in Africa and elsewhere). Will pet raccoon dogs soon be entered into the United States by dog traffickers to be marketed as "rescued dogs"? How soon before your neighbor's new dog is a "mix" of Pit Bull and pet raccoon dog? Will your neighbor's dog spread SARS to you and to your children? It looks that way.

Maybe all of this sounds shocking. It should. After all, SARS is an infectious disease with no known cure or preventive vaccine. And dogs carry SARS. Will SARS return? Yes. SARS is deadly. Will dogs spread SARS in the United States? ***

Photo of Carole Wade furnished by the author