What happens when the moral universe of the animal world is turned upside down, and the rescuers become the abusers, and the very idea of animals and their rights is broken into pieces? You can ask Wilbur Cerate, an immigrant living in Virginia, and can ask his daughter, whose dog was taken from the family porch and killed for no reason.

I am a lifelong supporter of animal rights, a member of several animal rights organizations, it is awkward, even uncomfortable for me to be writing so much about the sad evolution of the animal rights movement from one that was created to care about the well being of animals into a rogue, arrogant social movement  that is  driving animals from the world and abusing the people who own them, especially if those people are members of minorities,  are poor or working-class.

I learn of story after story – every day – detailing a new kind of abuse and injustice in the animal world, the war against people and the animals they care for – The New York Carriage Drivers, A homeless man in Manhattan whose dog was taken from him and killed, Tawni Angel of Santa Monica, falsely accused of abuse for giving pony rides to children, farmers, circus owners, Hollywood producers, students, whose lives have been cruelly invaded and disrupted without cause, and of the many animals vanishing from our world because it is too controversial or difficult to keep them.

And now Maya, a healthy and blameless Chihuahua taken from her home by so-called animal rights activists and euthanized.

I almost choke on the idea sometimes, but it is becoming increasingly evident. The animal rights movement is becoming one of the greatest threats to animals in our world, and to the rights of the people who own and love them. It seems we need to save our animals from the people who kill them while professing to be fighting for their rights. Is there any more elemental right for any animal than to live safely in our world?

In October, Wilbur Cerate, a Hispanic immigrant to Virginia came home to find that Maya, a Chihuahua he had bought as a gift for his daughter, was gone. Cerate, who lives in a mobile home trailer,  had a surveillance camera trained on the porch to protect against theft, and when he replayed the video, he saw that two workers from PETA (People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals) had come to his home, opened the door, come onto his porch and taken Maya.

Cerate tried repeatedly to call PETA and the local animal shelter but nobody could or would speak to him.

Three days later, two PETA representatives came to his home and told him that Maya had been euthanized, presumably because she had no current tags or identification. The local prosecutor refused to prosecute the PETA workers, saying there was no “criminal intent.” It is okay, he said, to come into someone’s  home, steal their dog and kill it if they meant well. Hundreds of local residents are organizing in support of Cerate, who has hired an attorney and now has a Facebook Page, you follow the story there and support the family’s fight for justice.

Like the New York carriage drivers with their horses, the Cerate family loved Maya and cared for her well. She was not in poor health, and there was no issue of abuse. Cerate admits he did not have up to date tags, he was not asked to get some. It is difficult for me to imagine PETA coming onto the porch of a wealthy suburban family, stealing their dog, and killing it without consulting them or initiating any kind of due legal process.

Again, this strain of elitism, even racism in the animal rights movement. It is equally difficult for me to imagine the mayor of New York supporting fringe social movements who have decided it is abusive for people to work in museums where art is often looted and removed from other countries, and seek to ban museums from the city. One common thread in this wave of people abuse stories is that the people in them are poor, speak English poorly or are working class people without access to a lot of money or media. For years, the carriage drivers have been ignored or dehumanized as “random people,” or people without morals or worth. The mayor, who seeks to put them out of business, refuses to even meet with them or speak to them.

Cerate is getting lots of media, thanks to his Facebook page. A new social movement is arising out of this kind of cruelty and injustice, and the question for animals lovers is this:

How can we reclaim the movement for the rights of animals and return to the value that people and animals deserve dignity and respect?  Can we permit the people who wantonly defame and harass innocent people, and  the people who steal animals and kill them at will to speak for the future of animals in our world? The local prosecutor in Virginia may not see this theft and killing of a dog as a crime, but hundreds of his constituents do.

Maya has sadly joined the ranks of human victims and animal martyrs who are killed, banished and sacrificed by people who claim to speak for their rights but exploit them in the name of hating and harming helpless people.

I am thinking today of Wilbur Cerate, another unlikely hero in the struggle over the future of animals, another animal lover who is fighting for his right to have animals in his life and the life of his daughter.