Boycott Rooney’s for St. Patrick’s Day
The Rooney family, founding owners of the Pittsburgh Steelers, owners of several "Public Houses" (read: bars) in Palm Beach County, and also local politician-hopefuls (Republican), own the Palm Beach Kennel Club.
I think you know where this is going.
The Rooneys are once again trying to get the okay for slots at their track to bring in more people and prop it up, just like tracks in Broward County and Miami Dade have done. Of course, that just spells more suffering for the dogs.
And though many people do care about the dogs, apparently their moral compass is easily spun in a different direction in the right circumstance. In "Kennel Club Counting on Slots" in today’s Palm Beach Post, staff writer Stacey Singer reports:
The Villas of Delray widows had never been to the Palm Beach Kennel Club’s dog track and poker room. They weren’t comfortable betting on dogs. They worried about the animals and couldn’t make sense of the handicapping. Poker wasn’t for them, either.
But if there were slots at the track, they’d go, they said.
Wow, that’s some serious moral fiber talking.
A bill (SB 970) to allow video gambling (video slot machines) at dog and horse tracks passed the Senate several days ago. The bill would also lower the amount of taxes the tracks pay. Let’s make sure our congresspeople know that we are against expanding gambling in Palm Beach County.
Oh, and if you’re Irish or at all interested in celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in Palm Beach County, boycott Rooney’s (and that really would be a boycott, as I’ve got no problem with football, though it doesn’t interest me, or with someone running for Congress as a Republican. If they sold the track, I’d go over there immediately and have the first mug of beer in 41 years).
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Does this mean comments are not posted unless they agree with your viewpoint? I'm Irish and I love Rooney's Pub. I've been going there for years and know the family well. Believe it or not, they are actually nice people. I have yet to find a back room where animals are tortured for their pleasure. Because you disagree with one of their business endevors, all their enterprises should be boycotted? Some Jews still boycott Bayer aspirin 60 years after the fact because its parent company was heavily involved in the Holocaust. Not sure if you believe in the Holocaust since you list Noam Chomsky as an influence. I find boycotting Bayer as silly as boycotting a pub because of its tenuous ties to a totally differebt type of business that you happen to find "morally objectionable" as if we are talking about child prostitution in Cambodia or rape gangs in the Sudan. They are on totally different levels. Are you one of those people who belive animal rights superceed human rights? Do you believe abortion rights are a sign of a progressive society, while being a proponent of the death penalty or hunting relegates us to the level of Saudi Arabia? Just wondering what your priorities are. By the way, I think I will boycott all products from Iceland, Norway, Japan, and all inuit tribes. Even though 99% of their populations most likely have nothing to do with whale hunting, they should all be punished because of the 1% that do.
Interesting rant.
If you spent five minutes learning about animal rights, and this blog in particular, many of your issues would have been addressed.
First, I never said any member of the Rooney family wasn't nice.
Next, I never said there was a back room torturing animals. The treatment of Greyhounds is perfectly public and much of it is legal. And much of it is horrifying. I should know. I adopted two retired racers and all of the issues they come with.
If I find that the family business is morally objectionable, I will boycott that business. (That is not a tenuous tie at all, by the way. The family that owns the business owns the track.)
I find using sentient beings, without their consent, deplorable no matter whether we're talking about dogs or children.
I never said animal rights should come before those of humans. That is not the issue and has never been.
My priorities are very clear: nonviolence and social justice for all sentient beings.
Before you deride someone, it would behoove you to know what you're talking about first.