Photo by Elizabeth Goolian

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Don't forget to watch!

Tonight, 8 PM Eastern, on HBO2. "Madonna of the Mills"--the documentary about a woman whose passion in life is saving puppy mill breeder dogs.

I'm taking bets on whether Adam Gopnik will be staring at the plasma box at the appointed hour. My guess? You guessed it.

Speaking of Adam Gopnik, on The New Yorker's "Ask the Author" Web site page, Gopnik was asked why he bought a puppy mill dog, and further, why he "would do anything to support this horrible industry."

No surprise, Gopnik went all adorable in answering the question, making light of his decision (or, more accurately, lack thereof) and tossing in a joking reference to Larry David. He said that he didn't know about puppy mills until after he'd bought the dog.

I can't label this an outright lie, because there's libel to think about. But I can tell you why I believe it's a lie, and here it is. The most important quality a writer has to have is curiosity. A writer who isn't curious about the world--and by "curious" I mean obsessively so--isn't a writer; s/he's a typist. Clearly, Adam Gopnik isn't a typist. Which means he possesses plenty of curiosity.

But we're supposed to believe that his daughter said she "could live with" a puppy mill dog, and he didn't respond in one of the following ways?
1. "Live with? What do you mean, live with? What would you have to live with?"
2. "A puppy mill dog? What's a puppy mill dog, and why is that a bad thing?"

I know. I need to get over Adam Gopnik. It just toasts me that all of us thousands of rescue volunteers work so hard for so long to get the word out about puppy mills and why it's so important never to buy anything in stores that sell puppies, and with one careless paragraph, he makes it all something that people can live with.

Maybe the HBO2 program will help make up for it a a little bit. Please watch.










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