I was born and raised in sunny California. In 2000, I relocated to Colorado where I married my wife Shannon. In addition to being a professional artist, we are both are active in American Kennel Club dog showing. Our dogs may be viewed at www.vandmastiffs.com.

This is our dog Bingley, a Mastiff. He tells it like it is.

First and foremost, politically I am a freedom-lovin’ American. I am also an artist, writer, and from time-to-time I throw my hat into the political ring to fight for the preservation of our pet ownership rights. Pet Ownership IS a Right, not a privilage...after all, animal ownership predates government and jaded animal rights activists.

Most of the time I'm drawing and painting, selling my oil paintings or products on my www.dogartrocks.com website. However, sometimes standing up for your rights (and the rights of others) becomes necessary. For example...

I helped fight the illustrious and former Senator Rick Santorum during his Pet Animal Welfare Statute of 2005, which unfortunately gave legitimacy on Capitol Hill to these far left-leaning extremist activists. My roll in the battle was to spend way too much time writing legislators and drawing political cartoons. The problem is that Santorum's agenda aided these groups in co-opting the “animal welfare” movement and fostering wide-spread corruption within the animal shelter industry. Thus far, he has yet to be exposed for his animal rights collusion with HSUS, PeTA, etc. Hopefully the Republican Party will figure it out.

Working on concert with other dedicated Dog Fanciers, we were also successful in hindering infamous Kory Nelson from spreading animal rights laws in Colorado. Despite his successful career as a Denver City Attorney and an unfortunate infiltration into the Douglas County Republican Party, I played an integral part of exposing and defeating Kory Nelson’s attempt to corrupt the Parker, Colorado Town Council and impose Breed Specific Legislation upon its residents. The town spilled out of the chambers into the lobby! The ordinance was unanimously defeated.

Other successes have been the defeat of a state-wide pet/animal limit bill in Colorado. After several hours of testimony from the public, the bill died in committee. Colorado's shelter industry wanted to increase its shelter importation scheme (and fill its coffers with more fundraising dollars) at the expense of good and honest dog breeders in the state. What came out of that hearing was rather interesting. The vast majority of dogs being sold by the Colorado Shelter Industry didn't even originate in Colorado. In fact, with a few exceptions in remote areas, most shelter dogs don't even originate in the U.S. anyway. Because most people spay/neuter, and more importantly, keep their pets confined to the yard, the over-population myth is just that...a myth; a big marketing scheme to continue to expand the shelter industry market. It's the dirty little secret they don't want the public to know.

Thankfully, the attempts by animal rights activists and their animal shelter counterparts to introduce and pass anti-animal ownership laws in Colorado have been largely unsuccessful...with the exception of Denver, Aurora, and a few other municipalities.

The Dog Fancy knows full well that more pet legislation does more harm to animals than good. The Dog Fancy is finally standing up for its rights and defeating animal rightist corruption across the United States. As a result, the future for healthy pets of good temperament is getting brighter. And the continued assault on pet ownership rights is failing more and more.

Even though I didn't reside in California during an atrocious mandatory spay/neuter bill was being proposed by the state legislature (AB1634), I sent several political cartoons to the California Dog Fancy and posted them on-line in order to help defeat the legislation. Thankfully, due to the tremendous efforts of the Fancy in California, the State eventually figured it out and the bill died.

Once again, I'm a freedom-lovin' American. I don't wish to stamp out anyone else's free will. Mostly I prefer to paint and draw and show my dogs. I handle dogs for others, but I am primarily an owner handler.

My life may be summed up as follows...

I love art.
I love to draw and paint.

It is my passion!

I love dogs.
I love music.
I love to write.

Passion is good!

Thanks for dropping by.
Nick Van Duren

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