by Meg Weinberger
I spent decades working with abused, abandoned, and neglected animals before I ever served in the Florida Legislature, and one thing became obvious very early: good intentions only get you so far.
You can want to save every dog that comes through the door. You can have volunteers ready to help. But the food still has to be bought, the veterinarian still has to be paid, and somebody still has to have the room and money to take responsibility for that animal.
That is probably why I have so little patience for politicians who treat compassion as something they can claim simply by saying the right things.
The Left does this constantly. Socialism is sold almost entirely in moral language. Give government more control, we are told, and society becomes more humane.
Nobody is selling that pitch harder right now than Abdul El-Sayed.
Before he was a socialist standard-bearer, El-Sayed oversaw Detroit Animal Control through the city health department, an operation a whistleblower described at the time as a “dog slaughterhouse.” Thousands of dogs and cats were euthanized in Detroit under his watch. Years later, he cleared things up on his own podcast, admitting he was “not much of an animal guy.”
Neither is the company he keeps. El-Sayed’s loudest celebrity booster, socialist Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, campaigned alongside him across Michigan, and spent last fall fending off accusations that he abuses his dog with a shock collar.
That record, and that company, sit awkwardly beside the progressive left’s constant insistence that it owns the moral high ground on compassion.
Remember the COVID years.
During Anthony Fauci’s tenure, NIAID funded toxicology testing involving beagles. Records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act showed dogs underwent cordectomies and were scheduled to be euthanized so researchers could examine their organs. At the same time, Americans were repeatedly told that surrendering more authority to public-health officials was an act of compassion. Under President Biden’s military COVID vaccine mandate, nearly 9,000 active-duty and reserve service members were involuntarily separated for refusing the shot.
It happened over and over during those years. Government claimed the compassionate ground for itself, and the public was expected to hand over enormous power and trust that the moral question had already been settled.
I do not.
Government has a real role in protecting animals. I was proud to sponsor Dexter’s Law with Rep. Linda Chaney, strengthening Florida’s response to aggravated animal cruelty and helping make Florida one of the strongest states in the country when it comes to protecting animals.
When someone tortures an animal, I want the law to have teeth. Limited government does not mean weak government, and it certainly does not mean looking away from deliberate cruelty.
But government is not virtuous simply because it is government.
And socialism has a deeper problem, one that becomes obvious to anyone who has spent time in animal rescue: caring costs money.
Cuba has shown that in painful fashion. As the island’s economic crisis worsened, animal rescuers reportedly struggled to afford food, vaccines, and veterinary care. The desire to help remained. The resources did not.
That is the part socialism never wants to talk about. It loves the language of compassion while paying far less attention to the prosperity that makes compassion possible. A family with financial breathing room is better able to pay for a sick dog. A healthy business community produces more donors. A prosperous society leaves more people able to help when somebody, or some animal, needs it.
Free enterprise does not make people good. It gives good people more ability to act.
Conservatives should stop conceding that ground to the left.
Caring about animals is not progressive. Neither is protecting the vulnerable. We can support strong laws against cruelty, demand accountability from public institutions, and defend an economy that leaves families and communities with the means to help.
That matters politically too.
I have spent years around people who care deeply about animals but do not necessarily follow every fight in Washington or Tallahassee. Some may never be drawn into politics by another debate over tax brackets or federal spending. But when they see someone fighting for an issue they have cared about for years, they pay attention.
In a close race, that can be enough to matter.
Conservatives do not need to invent a new message for those voters. We need to show them that the principles we already believe in apply to the things they care about too.
The left can keep claiming compassion as part of its brand.
I would rather see who actually practices it.
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Meg Weinberger represents District 94 in the Florida House of Representatives. She is the founder and executive director of Rescue Life, a nonprofit animal sanctuary in Palm Beach County dedicated to rescuing abused, abandoned, and neglected animals.
Image “Rescued” by Rescue Lyfe.
