A lot of people were shocked and confused by a story that
appeared on the ABC show 20/20 last Friday. It was an all-out attack on
the SPCA of Texas and their cruelty and abuse investigations. And a
completely unfounded one.
Hosted by John "Gimme-a-Break" Stossel, it argued that the
Dallas humane group, under the guise of conducting cruelty and neglect
situations, is really stealing dogs from "helpless" breeders, and then
selling these animals for profit.
It was, for sure, one of the more bizarre "investigations"
one could ever dream up, and one of the most irresponsible pieces of
"reporting" I've ever seen.
ABC apparently contacted the SPCA of Texas last year,
saying they wanted to do a story about animal abuse at puppy mills --
which, as we all know, are simply in it for the money. But in the finished
version, it's the poor puppy mill breeders that are being exploited, and
the SPCA that's in it for the money.
Talk about turning reality on its head!
It's not simply that the piece is biased. It's loaded with
jaw-dropping misrepresentations from start to finish. How something like
this got on the air is impossible to understand. (Makes you wonder about
everything else you see on TV "news".)
The SPCA has published its own rebuttal. But the story of
how this TV piece came to be, and what happened behind the scenes, is
quite amazing. And it wasn't just the SPCA of Texas. All SPCAs everywhere
are brought under suspicion.
We'll be telling the story in installments on the website
this week, as we piece the various parts of it together. The first part
should be up later today, Tuesday. And we'll follow up with more as we
talk to more people in the days to come.
http://news.bestfriends.org
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