Steve,
Are people educable? Well that's a question in and of itself<G>
Some are, some aren't, but we keep on trying.
In answer to your question about assigning human status to animals, Ingrid Newkirk has stated that animals have the same rights as a retarded child, so yes, PETA's founding member does indeed believe animals have 'rights' as we define them for people. BUT, perhaps the debate should clearly define rights?
On the question of relations between groups, the national groups run the gamut from the extremists at ALF to the warmer and fuzzier images of PETA(with all their celeb spokespeople) though I have to wonder, do those spokespeople go beyond the surface of the AR movement? If you look at the membership/administrative lists, there actually is crossover of personnel, so a relationship exists.
Bottom line for me is this, fighting for animal welfare, and humane treatment? I'm all for it. Unfortunately when legislation such as AB1634 in California is introduced, and you really start digging into it, and realize that for all intents and purposes this bill is the start of the slope that leads to the outlawing of all breeding of dogs,cats, and once the door is open, many other companion species, it changes your outlook. This bill, as well as the legislation in Louisville KY, the nasty legislation in Denver CO that resulted in pets being confiscated from their homes and euthanized, the HEART ordinance in Albuquerque NM, all these efforts have been backed and supported by DDAL, HSUS, Peta and smaller groups of loosely affiliated AR folks. It scares the bejeebers out of me, and makes me angry as all get out. Yes, my outlook will enable some irresponsible folks to breed, own etc, however, those same folks aren't going to follow any law passed anyway, the only folks who do get hurt are those who currently live within the law, as always.
Georgia has some of the strictest breeding requirements in the country, if you have more than one litter of puppies in a 12 months period, you are required to purchase a breeding license,and open your home to inspection by the Ag department. Reality? This has done zip to cut down on the number of shelter animals, why? Because there is no enforcement other than on breeders of purebred animals who compete(because your name, dog's date of birth etc are all public access through show catalogs) How many wellbred Yorkies are in shelters? Next to none. What DO you find in shelters for the most part? Randomly bred dogs, a large number of larger breed/mix breed dogs,and a whole lot of cats. Why? Because there is no true effort at education. If we really applied revenue toward reaching out and educating people on the idea of voluntarily spaying and neutering their pet, it would be a start,if we offered low cost spay/neuter clinics to those who are income challenged, that would be a huge help, enforcing leash laws already on the books? THAT would do more than anything to cut down on the numbers of randomly bred litters in any area.
So, animal rights? Yes, they have a right to humane care, good food and secure shelter, they have a right to be protected from the dangers living in a human society exposes them to, but, (there's always a but<G>) there is a limit, such as removing the definition of property and assigning the term 'guardian' to owners(RI, CO) another slippery slope from a legal standpoint.
I could write volumes, but it's very hard to cover all these items in a couple of posts to a list, and I end up confusing issues<G> So I'll leave things here
