We all have heard how horrible war is, how man will act under duress, how our true nature will come out. I guess I do understand someone defending its life. I never understood (and probably never will, either) why someone has this need to take it out on someone weaker than him/her. When I think of the horrors of civil wars, of people turning on each other because of "power" and such, it makes my stomach turn. I also don't understand why someone would be mean to animals. I'm not talking about being faced by a lion in a jungle and killing it (and that happens on a regular basis to many of us, anyway!), no, I'm talking about animal cruelty in general. We all heard horror stories about puppy mills, and those kennels where they train fighting dogs, or animal neglect. It's common.
Not everybody is an animal lover, I get that. Just like not everyone is a kid lover. Not wanting an animal as a pet is one thing, but being cruel to an animal is another one completely. Pets are, in my book, the purest form of unconditional love one can get, and that is priceless. They don't care if you are fat, have tattoos, no job, lots of money or whatever else. You show them some care, attention, feed them, and they will be your friend.
Last week I saw a newscast about this place/pound called "Berger Blanc", and how badly they are treating animals. To say the least, it made me mad. They have a mandate with our city for animal control. Strays or animals people want to get rid of are brought there to either be adopted or put down. Supposedly, when a pet is lost, one could get it back from that place. Not only do they not help reunite lost pets with their owners, but they expedite the process to euthanize pets.
Every year, when July 1st comes around, our National Moving Day, many pets are left behind by their owners. These pets are often brought to "Berger Blanc" to be put down. It's no longer convenient to own a pet, it's getting too old, or just because it's not as much fun as one had hope, plus it's a lot of work, so these responsible pet owners simply decide to get rid of their pet. It pisses me off to see how little people respect animals. A pet is not a disposable good.
I've posted links about the news report on my Bacefook page as well as a link for a petition going around to shut them down. Their treatments of animals is simply inhumane. The owners of that place should be charged with criminal charges and severely fined. In the newscast they show an employee who laughed and really didn't care about the pets. He should be charged as well. That level of savagery was/is scary.
Some people will say "come on, they're only animals who had no chance anyway". These animals didn't have to suffer that way. When I look at my old cat, I can't even phantom the idea of having him suffer. I've been feeling sad about the idea of having to put him down (when the time comes), but seeing the horrible deaths some animals had to go through makes me shiver. I woudn't want to see anyone suffer like that, in those conditions. How can someone not care so much?
Thinking about this, I've realised not only the employees of that place are heartless, but they people who abandonned their pets as well. It is too easy to get rid of pet in our society. When Hubby and I decided to adopt our cat (sixteen years ago) we made a commitment. We would take care of him until he died. I wasn't getting a cat only because it was so darn cute as a kitten. I wanted a companion, and I have a great one.
I've been wondering, for some, if it would be as easy to get rid of a child, if some people would? I have this strange feeling that some people might. After all, it is a lot of work to raise a child, plus it's costly. At times, it can also be inconvenient. I know, some people will get upset about how I compare my pet to their child. But if we're honest with ourselves, we will admit that some people would, if they could get away with it. Some people have shown as much cruelty to their kids. We've only heard about those who did get caught, so there are some more out there.
Why is it we can not treat life (all lives) as the sacred thing it is? How can we be so disconnected from our feelings that being cruel to another living doesn't bother us? We live in a sad world... there's no doubt about that...
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One of the (many) newscast
2 comments:
Sometimes people suck. Really.
When we had to evacuate from the Hayman fire a few years ago, you would not believe how many people just left their pets to burn up. The deputies and fire department went door-to-door to make sure there were no people left, and found dozens of abandoned pets.
Here, the animal shelter run by the city is terrible as well. They don't mistreat the animals they have (as far as I know), but my problem with them is that they're responsible for enforcing animal cruelty laws, yet they make it very difficult to report a case and they are very slow to remove neglected animals from their owners. I have a neighbor who kept a tiny dog chained up on the porch 16 hours a day (no shelter and not enough food and water in every kind of weather) and it took five years of my other neighbors and I repeatedly calling the animal shelter before they finally took the dog -- and they only did it because the owners consented to give him up. Apparently, the dog had started snapping at people, which: no kidding! Of course an animal will turn mean when you habitually mistreat it. People. So stupid.
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