Posted on 10/28/2009 5:45:24 AM PDT by markomalley
Springfield, MO) -- Retired "Price is Right" host Bob Barker may not be on TV anymore, but he's making news in the Ozarks again. The TV icon came home to Drury University to drop another major financial gift on the school. Barker wanted to tell us about the first of its kind program the money will fund.
"What we're doing here today is something they're going to be talking about all across the country" says Bob Barker, Drury Alumni.
It's a check for $1,000,000 that will start that dialogue. Barker is giving his alma matter the money to establish the Dorothy Jo Barker Professorship in Animal Rights. Named for Barker's late wife, the program will offer intense course study on animal issues like cruelty and philosophy.
"It's taught by 6 professors all experts in their field. There's no other class like this in the United States" says professor Dr. Patricia McEachern.
"At the very least, the students who take this class will have more respect for animals" says Barker.
This gift should come as no surprise to people who watched Barker on "The Price is Right" and heard him urging viewers to get their pets spayed and neutered. Barker says his deep passion for animal rights was born about 40 years ago when he was asked to do some TV commercials for an animal shelter in Los Angeles. That's when Barker says he learned of so many atrocities against animals, that he felt compelled to get involved.
"It's become a real passion for me" says Barker.
That's part of why Barker is funding animal study programs at Drury and eight other universities. He hopes those who benefit from the program will learn to act locally.
"They should really be helping local organization. We're trying to help grassroots organizations" says Barker. While Barker jokes that his frequent trips back to the Ozarks are getting expensive, the showman is always serious about one message.
"Only one way I know to close an interview. Help control the pet population, have your pet spayed or neutered" laughs Barker.
Today's check is in addition to another $1,000,000 gift Barker gave to establish a Drury animal rights forum last fall. As part of it's thanks, the school tracked down and gave Barker the actual jersey he wore when he played basketball for the school in 1947.
I love animals, I really do ( I own a retired greyhound who is greatly loved). But the rest of the world must be laughing at us. Here we are, spending BILLIONS a year on animal costumes, clothing, fancy leashes, toys and doggie beds that rival and cost more than human ones while the PEOPLE in this country lose jobs, go hungry, and whatnot.
We became a nation of fools when people stopped looking at animals as a means of food, protection, and human assistance/companionship and made them people. While I am all for people with enough disposable income to spend scads of money on whatever they choose, it is NOT the case with most americans, yet they do it anyway. Organizations like peta have done nothing to help this situation by their antics like calling fish “sea kittens” and making children afraid to catch one. I wonder what everyone will do when they can’t afford to buy food? Will sea kitten ever be on the menu?
We need a reset button......
I can think of some animals in the WH who need to be spayed/neutered.
However, people who dedicate their lives to their pets could probably benefit from more constructive interaction with people.
Apologies to all of you Freepers with 50 cats in your living room.
Well said.
"spending BILLIONS a year on animal costumes, clothing, fancy leashes, toys and doggie beds"and the
"jobs"bit in your sentence up there.
I mean, those pet toys aren't all being manufactured by a team of highly skilled badgers.
They are also being manufactured in china or some other country, so the more we bought of them, the more jobs left.
“It’s a check for $1,000,000 that will start that dialogue. Barker is giving his alma matter the money to establish the Dorothy Jo Barker Professorship in Animal Rights”
Unbelievable!!! What has this society become? At a time when babies are being butchered, thanks to 40 million plus abortions and children are being raped, murdered and dumped, some morons have nothing else to worry about but animal rights!!
First, it’s HIS money, to do with as he pleases.
Second, here is another group he gave to.(but the msm pretty much skipped it)
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS112534+07-Oct-2009+PRN20091007
Give YOUR money and time when and where you choose.
As the old saying goes "The more people I meet, the more I love my dogs".
Animals under our care and control deserve to be treated humanely, but I don’t believe that they have rights. That’s a slipperly slope that leads to PETA-type idiocy, inevitably to lead to the conclusion that we can’t raise animals for meat or use them for scientific experimentation, or perhaps possess or use animals at all.
Yes, you are correct. We need a reset. Just what is such a thing? I teach in the Animal Sciences Dept at a major land grant institution and have observed the anti-ag disease first hand.
Are there bad actors in the food animal complex? Yes, unfortunately there are but they constitute a very very small percentage of the total farm animal producers who are out there. We are doing our level damnest to ferret these bad actors out through education and general audits. We are making great progress but there is still much to be done.
Many anti-ag “intellectuals” speak of the greed and so forth that exists in the “factory farm complex” out there. That word is load of tripe and is born out of the ignorance of a 98% general population that has no concept of the day to day management of our nation’s food supply.
What do people expect to be done of this existing situation? Go back to the old days where everybody kept a few hogs and chickens in their backyards? How preposterous is this insinuation? Much of this is borne out by the anti-meat/vegan agenda.
At the risk of sounding radical, the only reset button that I can imagine that will rattle the policy makers and the public in general is a good ole fashioned short term Ethiopian famine of sorts where the shelves are bare of the essentials such as milk, cheese, eggs and yes, meat for say 2 to 3 weeks.
Lets see what happens then to the priorities that is given to animal rights in this society.
My two cents,
MFO
I have 7 dogs, and I couldn’t agree with you more. I also have 4 children and 6 grandchildren, who definitely rank above the dogs. I love my dogs, treat them incredibly well, and would never hurt an animal, but I would never make them a priority over people.
The same people who are members of PETA and other animal rights advocates are generally the same ones who think nothing of killing a baby in the womb.
I’ve thought for a while that an “economy of scale” could be achieved to care for a very large number of shelter animals in combination with other projects. Unfinished as an idea yet, but some possibilities.
To start with, a large farm significantly reduces costs by producing its own animal food, and would reduce it even more if it had an irradiation sterilizer, with reusable sealed containers to keep its food fresh for many weeks without refrigeration.
This would mean that food animals and food crops would be raised in addition to shelter animals. Probably the most efficient combination would be pigs and carp. The carp would feed on the animal feces, and the pigs would eat the carp as their major protein source. Then the pigs and the carp would be butchered as the primary protein source for the shelter animals combined with food crops.
Most of the labor and animal care would come from trustee prison workers, in exchange for room, board and minimum wage, so they can build up savings prior to release, hopefully lowering recidivism rates. Similar programs with trustees raising and caring for horses have had considerable success.
If set up as a long term program, it would cost much less than typical with smaller scale animal shelters, and would take a lot of pressure off conventional shelters, while giving shelter animals unlikely to be adopted a better quality of life and care.
What has this society become?
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It’s funny you should ask. A guy who contributes to both animal rights and veteran’s groups is called a moron because he does not contribute to one person’s particular pet cause.
I’d say we have become a society suffering from tunnel vision, perhaps, for some, a case of singleissueitis, needing a forestfromtreesectomy.
Most people, yourself included, can apply their energies to multiple things.
Why not...he already established his “Dirty old man with money and influence” endowmenr just like Letterman did.
Why not...he already established his “Dirty old man with money and influence” endowment just like Letterman did.
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