Ernest Istook Quotes

It is not part of a true culture to tame tigers, any more than it is to make sheep ferocious.

If I had a tit for every one of these pigs to suck at, they would still be my friend.

We like horses and we like dogs and we like to be in the midst of agriculture.

Indian films never show cows. When you go to India, the most noticeable thing is the cows. Everywhere you look, there's cows walking around! Just by introducing the idea of animals - livestock walking around - suddenly makes it more real.

You can draw the character out of pets, and you can make them your friends, but they are animals, and they have to be allowed to live the lives of animals.

Why is it there are so many more horses' asses than there are horses?

Humans have a fraught relationship with beasts. They are our companions and our chattel, our family members and our laborers, our household pets and our household pests. We love them and cage them, admire them and abuse them. And, of course, we cook and eat them.

It is common talk that every individual is entitled to economic security. The only animals and birds I know that have economic security are those that have been domesticated--and the economic security they have is controlled by the barbed-wire fence, the butcher's knife and the desire of others. They are milked, skinned, egged or eaten up by their protectors.

I just can't remember a time when I wasn't involved with animals and wildlife.

They've made it a felon to drive from Florida to Louisiana with any fighting birds, so I've had to get rid of most of my chickens. I only got about a hundred left now, which I just keep for colour and breeding. I love those birds as much as anything.

The domesticated chicken is probably the most widespread bird in the annals of planet Earth. If you measure success in terms of numbers, chickens, cows and pigs are the most successful animals ever.

If pigs could vote, the man with the slop bucket would be elected swineherd every time, no matter how much slaughtering he did on the side.

Liberals think that goats are sheep from broken homes.

Any man who doesn’t like dogs … shouldn’t be in the White House.

A good shepherd shears his flock; he does not flay them

I don't think rodeo is cruel at all. Bullriding is the only man-animal event that makes sense.

Fur is only of use to the animal that wears it.

I'm not a hunter.

Animal welfare must be a priority, and we need to switch to less industrial production methods.

We're one of the only animals in the world that don't really think of ourselves as animals, but we are animals, and we must respect our fellow animals.

Everyone has a different opinion; every country has a different way of doing things. But I do believe that we need a regulatory body so that everyone who owns or manages wildlife is subject to inspection and rated on how well they look after the animals and how the communities benefit.

I remember, when I was 7, my dad found a pregnant dog on the railroad track one day and brought her home. So my mom explained about how this dog was married but that her husband had passed away - she didn't want me to even think that a dog could have babies without being married.

If you're a part of this urban intelligentsia, you're not around animals all the time the way people were in the past. So animals become a part of the folklore.

Too often, animal-rights supporters seem to care about animals to the exclusion of people.

I learned to have a respect for animals and for the people who deal with them - vets and farmers.