Puppy mill investigation on Oprah
Posted by Anonymous on Apr 02, 2008 · Member since Dec 1969 · 11789 posts
I know that people have many different and strong opinions about Oprah, but I just thought I'd let you all know that on Friday, there will be an investigation on puppy mills on the show. I am debating whether or not to watch it, but I think it's important that such a mainstream show is focusing on this--maybe some people will finally *get* it or will learn something new.
Yeah, Oprah is pretty good about covering lots of ground. She is also having a pregnant female-to-male transsexual on this week, which should be interesting. I'll watch both of these, if I get the chance.
I think this is a good topic for her to cover simply because (IMO) a large percentage of her viewers are in the demographic most likely to buy pure-bred or pet store dogs without really researching where they come from.
Definitely. That is indeed her audience.
I generally like her, but sometimes I really despise Oprah. Mainly when the holidays come around and she does that god-forsaken, self-indulgent, material worshipping circus of an episode, "Oprah's Favorite Things," where she showcases all the useless, overpriced items people don't need to waste their money on and didn't even realize they "had to have." And I'm fairly certain there was an episode that exposed something or other about the truth of meat production, and she vowed never to eat meat again. Which I sincerely doubt ever happened. She just has SO much money! She does a lot of good, but seriously! With that money and power, she could do so much more! She can say whatever she wants and people will listen to her no matter what. It's just too much for my brain to handle, I guess.
But then again, I do like her for at least giving topics like puppy mills an episode. Getting the information out there is always positive, of course.
A new face! Hi Jessica! :howdy:
There's a billboard off the freeway going into Chicago that says "Oprah, please do a show on the puppy mills." That's one way to catch someone's attention. I wondered if she ever would.
Whenever she or dr. Oz mentions a product on her show, that item has vanished from the shelves by the end of the day. in the first 3 months i worked at this health food store, we hadn't sold a single bag of chia seeds. Then all of a sudden people came in asking for them like crazy and i asked one of our coustomers half-jokingly if Oprah had a show on chia seeds, and sure enough, yep! We can't keep them in stock- even our distributer ran out! The same thing happened with netti pots a while ago. Just say the word, Oprah.
There's a billboard off the freeway going into Chicago that says "Oprah, please do a show on the puppy mills." That's one way to catch someone's attention. I wondered if she ever would.
She actually mentioned that this billboard was why she did the show--the guy who put up the billboard was one of her guests and runs an animal rescue group.
The show was OK, I guess. She did make it very clear that almost all dogs in pet stores come from puppy mills and that she will now only adopt dogs from shelters. Hopefully her viewers will do the same and not go to the mall to purchase the latest "designer dog". I guess she just lost her dog last month (13 year old Cocker) to illness, so she was very emotional about the whole thing. It was good for people to see what sorts of conditions these dogs live in and how sick and mistreated they are, especially the breeding females. The puppies are the "lucky" ones because they're out of there in 8 weeks. The guests she had on also emphasized that they know some people want a certain breed but that literally every breed of dog can be adopted from a shelter or breed-specific rescue group.
The one thing I DID NOT like was that she kept referring to how horrible it was that these dogs were treated like livestock. Hello?! So, it's OK to treat "livestock" like this, but not cute cuddly puppies? That's bull shit, I think we all can agree. So, Oprah and her crew might be getting a letter from me. Anyone in Chicago want to post an "Oprah, please do a show on factory farms; the cows, pigs, chickens, sheep, etc. need your help" billboard?
That is really interesting that she did the show because of a billboard--my AR group is raising money for a billboard right now--we put one up every year to promote animal rights...let see if I can find a pic of last years...
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w202/Capture79/Vegies/BillBoard.jpg
The Humane Society put in a big contribution, that's why they got to slap their logo all over it--but it was up for several months like 4-6 something like that, and where we had it 50,000 people a day drove by it--so it had a good viewing area. Maybe I should talk with our group about doing an Oprah" one though...Hmmm....
That's awseome Capture!
And good for you Kbunette for writing Oprah to let her see another and bigger perspective. I'm really glad she did the show. And it sounds like she's starting to get it. Hopefully she'll continue to grow in her consciousnessand awareness and "get" even more! I really like her as far as she does a ton of good things for people, gets a lot of people aware of good things to do, and donates so much money to so many good funds- much moreso than most other rich people or celebrities, but she still frustrtaes me. Like KMK pointed out, she has alot of money and has worked hard for it and given a lot away for good, but she sure promotes a lot of expensive things to buy. Maybe it's to keep her shows and mag full of paying sponsors vying for a spot. But she's doing that whole Ekhart Tolle "A New Earth" (which is a fabulous book btw), raising people's consciousness, thing free on-line every Monday eve, so maybe she is starting and will continue to change even more for the better and influence others too, also. I wouldn't be surprised.
I do want to just shake her everytime she talks about wanting to lose weight or be healthier and tell her to GO VEGAN!!!! How can people NOT realize how healthy it is for them??? ugh
After talking to my mom, I realized the show was better than I thought. I guess I already knew all of the things they talked about on the show, so I was kind of disappointed that they didn't go into more depth. But my mom didn't know anything about puppy mills (had only heard me mention them in a few conversations--apparently only pretending to know what I was talking about ::) ) and she said she learned a lot from the show. I'm guessing most of Oprah's viewers are in the dark about the issue, so it was likely more eye-opening than I originally thought.
She and her producers did get an email from me talking about both my appreciation for the show on puppy mills and my concerns with the treatment of farm animals. Hopefully I will get a response...we shall see...
And I agree, firefightress. I think overall Oprah does a lot of good. Of course she could still do more (couldn't we all?), but she could get away with a lot less, too. I think people just think she should do more with her money because she's already a philanthropist and in the spotlight for that, so people expect more from her. Whereas other really wealthy celebrities who don't give anything to charity are ignored and people don't notice or care whether they give or not. She definitely covers a lot of important and varied issues and really makes people think about the diversity of humans and how prejudices that people may hold are unwarranted and should be re-evaluated. I've noticed she's done a lot on the LGBT community recently, whether with gay celebrities, questioning and transgender teens, or with the pregnant man.