Socialism, Animal Welfare & the Missing Pigeons
- FPI
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
The Democratic Socialists of America have apparently discovered animal welfare. That is encouraging. Perhaps next they can discover economic history. A recent article published by DSA’s Democratic Left discusses “animal liberation” through the familiar Marxist prism: capitalism exploits workers, capitalism exploits animals, capitalism must therefore be dismantled before animals can truly be free.
Naturally.
Because apparently the Dachshund curled up on your couch has been waiting patiently for the proletariat to seize the means of production. The timing is especially remarkable because DSA’s new national program declares:
“As capitalism fails to solve problems of its own making, it turns to right-wing authoritarianism.”
And then comes this extraordinary promise:
“If we lived in a classless society and governed ourselves, we could freely build a world without war or poverty.”
Godspeed, comrades. There is only one problem: Human beings have conducted these experiments around the world during the 20th century, always ending with the same results: gulags, prisoner camps, and tens of millions shot or starved to death.
We don't have to go that far back for glimpse into atrocities committed in the name of free groceries and healthcare: Consider Venezuela, 2016: Hugo Chávez promised his country a socialist revolution in one of the most resource-rich nations on Earth. Government controls expanded. Private businesses were expropriated. Markets were distorted. Production collapsed. By 2016, the consequences were no longer theoretical.
And it got worse: Foreign Policy reported that desperate Venezuelans had begun hunting pigeons, dogs and cats for food, citing the mayor of Chacao in Caracas.
READ THAT SENTENCE AGAIN: Pigeons. Dogs. Cats.
This was happening in a country sitting atop some of the largest petroleum reserves on the planet. So forgive Americans for declining another lecture about how abolishing capitalism will finally usher humanity into paradise.
Socialism's sales pitch is always magnificent: Everything will be free. Nobody will be poor. Everybody will be equal. Nobody will worry about groceries.
Then somebody inevitably starts wondering where all the groceries went.
America is imperfect. Capitalism is imperfect. Every economic system created by human beings will be imperfect because human beings are imperfect. But here is what America has produced:
Extraordinary agricultural abundance, unprecedented charitable giving, enormous private investment in veterinary medicine, animal shelters supported by prosperous communities, pet-food aisles longer than grocery stores in many countries, and millions of families financially capable of treating dogs and cats not merely as animals — but as Family.
You cannot protect animals by impoverishing people. You cannot feed dogs with ideology. And you cannot claim capitalism inevitably produces authoritarianism while ignoring governments that centralized economic power in the name of socialism and produced shortages, repression and desperation instead.
Americans who genuinely care about animals should focus on the work that actually protects them: tougher enforcement against animal cruelty, fighting rings and neglect; responsible shelters and rescues; better veterinary access; responsible breeding; and ensuring law enforcement has the tools to punish people who abuse animals. Florida has already moved in that direction. Florida State House Representative Meg Weinberger (R–Palm Beach Gardens) sponsored Dexter’s Law, landmark legislation strengthening Florida’s response to aggravated animal cruelty and creating greater public accountability for convicted animal abusers.
That is animal welfare policy in the real world — no re-education camps required, no Lenin necessary, and no need to nationalize the dog park. Just compassion, common sense, prosperity and the rule of law.
America has plenty of room to improve. But when someone promises that abolishing capitalism will create a classless world without poverty, remember Venezuela in 2016.
And keep an eye on the pigeons.
