Victorian MP calls animal activists 'rabid dills' over election petition

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/08/victorian-mp-animal-activists-rabid-dills-election

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A Victorian MP has called animal activists “rabid dills” after he received hundreds of emails from people who signed an online petition in support of improving animal rights.

But instead of emailing the remark to the groups responsible for the campaign, former speaker and member for Bass, Ken Smith, mistakenly sent it to hundreds of MPs and candidates.

“I was elected to listen to and to read all info that is sent to me by people in my electorate, not to be swamped by rabid dills that don’t live in my electorate or even my state of Victoria,” the email read.

Though he did add at the end: “I care about animals as much as you do”.

With the state election set for 29 November, activist groups have joined forces to put animal welfare on the policy agenda, focusing on the cruelty of puppy factories, duck shooting and jumps racing.

Their online petition aims to send a message to politicians that many Victorians want those practices to stop, and hundreds of politicians get emailed every time a new person signs in support.

Smith’s response email was intended for Debra Tranter from the group Oscar’s Law, one of three organisations behind the petition and which is campaigning against factory farming.

While Tranter acknowledged receiving the petition emails may be annoying for MPs – more than 2,000 people have signed it – she said politicians were elected to listen to concerns.

“We’re talking about a really serious issue,” she said. “We’re trying to stop the caging of dogs in puppy farms, who are confined for up to 23 hours a day, made to breed until they can’t anymore and then killed.

“If Smith was getting emails to the point of annoyance, clearly it shows that people support animal welfare, and for him to resort to name-calling was the wrong thing to do.”

Smith did not respond to requests from Guardian Australia for comment.

Another animal welfare group, the Coalition for the Protection of Racehorses, has angered the horse racing industry by erecting a large billboard which pictured a dead racehorse on a busy street.

The organisation is also involved in the petition and their communications manager, Ward Young, said the coalition of welfare groups would be campaigning for animal rights until election day.

“We have a mass leafleting campaign about to start, where 40,000 leaflets letting Victorians know where the parties stand on animals will be distributed,” he said.

“Hopefully politicians will realise Victorians really do care about these issues and will no longer accept their buddying-up to the Shooters and Fishers party and other minority groups.”

He said he was disappointed by Smith’s reaction to the petition campaign.

“I get that the emails may be an inconvenience, but what is more inconvenient is the suffering that animals go through,” Young said.

“For him to call us dills shows he is out of touch with community attitudes given an overwhelming number of Victorians do want to see animal rights improved.”

In August, the Coalition government introduced legislation to strengthen Victoria’s dog and cat breeding laws, increase the powers of the RSPCA, and ensure pet shops recorded where they sourced their animals for sale.

That announcement came after the Labor opposition leader, Daniel Andrews, said if elected, he would crack down on puppy farms and provide the RSPCA with additional resources.

There is concern among senior government staffers that key election policies are being leaked to Labor before they are announced, News Ltd reported.