Homeless Dogs and Birth Defects –Beware!

      “Would you like to donate a toy to
a homeless dog?” I was at Pet Smart buying kitten food for my daughter’s
kitten.

      “No thank you,” I answered then
completed my transaction.  I stepped
aside and began putting on hat and gloves to go outside.

      “Would you like to donate a toy to
a homeless dog?” the cashier asked the next customer.

     “Uh, okay,” she answered.

      “Just pick anything from this
basket,” the cashier explained.  “Nothing
is more than $1.97”  

        I looked into the basket of thin
plastic squeaky toys in Christmas figures such as Santa and
penguins. Christmas was a month ago. Even in December they were likely slow
sellers.  I have a pug mix that shreds
such toys in minutes.  Most dogs that end
up in shelters could swallow them whole.

       Pet Smart unloaded their unsold
Christmas junk at a profit while seeming to promote charity to homeless dogs.  The animal shelter is then gifted junk. Most
customers probably left the store feeling taken advantage of.  It was a
win/lose/lose proposition,

        If the requested donation was for
homeless people, I might have been persuaded. Or not.  It’s not uncommon to ask customers to donate
to a charity and some are far more worthy than crummy toys for dogs.  Americans
have a lot of disposable wealth, so why not encourage them to donate to good
causes as long as their wallets are out?  

       People should donate more, but the
question is, to which charities?   Before
agreeing to hand over an extra dollar be sure you know where it is going.  Last year, a cashier asked me if I wanted to
give a dollar to the March of Dimes.  I
pondered the question.  A vague memory
came to me of a March of Dimes poster with a smiling girl using a walker. “Help
Prevent Birth Defects,” it said under her picture.  

     Birth
defects?  I considered the culture’s
current mode of reducing birth defects—abortion.

     “Does March of Dimes support
abortion?” I asked the cashier. 

      “Oh, I don’t know,” she answered.

       “I think I’ll look into it before
donating anything,” I said. When I got home, I found an
article on the Life Issues Institute website about the March of Dimes.

     Sadly, I learned that although
pro-lifers have boycotted them since the Seventies, many, like myself, are not
aware for their anti-life activities. 
Their emphasis on pre-natal testing for birth defects often leads to
abortion. They have close ties to the eugenics movement and support
experimenting on babies in the womb and tissue from aborted babies. They also
give grants to Planned Parenthood whose main service is abortions.

      I would sooner buy a whole basket
of dog toys before donating a single penny to the March of Dimes.  So let the buyer beware when asked for a donation.  Better yet, speak up. If I’m ever asked to
donate to the March of Dimes again, not only will I let the cashier know why I
won’t support it, I will also let the storeowner know.  After all, they started the conversation. 

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