Ok, there are a lot of things that piss me off. Corporate greed, Republican idiocy, environmental degradation, people in cars who don't put their blinkers on when turning etc.
But the one thing that can make me lose my cool in a split second is cruelty towards animals.
update: Out of anger I said "I seriously want to punch the f**king lights out of anyone who abuses an animal for pleasure." Violence begets violence. Sorry for my use of hyperbole that stemmed from anger.
Bless the people out there who go out on the limb, to protect animals from harm and advocate humane & compassionate treatment for animals.
Curse the sociopaths, devoid of empathy that take pleasure in seeing living things suffer. I think of my two dogs that I love with all my heart and the idea of anyone hurting an innocent dog- just puts me in a state of wrath. I wanted to yell when I read this story.
Two dogs were set on fire in Pleasant Grove Saturday night, and the Dallas Police and Dallas Animal Services have launched a joint investigation.
Dallas Police responded to a 911 call on Sunburst in southeast Dallas after residents reported seeing two "fireballs" running down the street. Several neighbors offered help to the dogs while others tried to catch the two teenaged boys suspected of setting the dogs on fire. By the time police arrived, the 15- and 17-year-old suspects had run from the scene.
Dallas Animal Services officers were called in to rescue the dogs. Both were burned so badly that they were euthanized Sunday. Six other dogs were impounded from the suspects’ address and are in protective custody at Dallas Animal Services.
"The two dogs were in agonizing pain," said Jonnie England, Director of Animal Advocacy for the Metroplex Animal Coalition, who saw the dogs shortly before they were euthanized. "The little female dog, who was either pregnant or nursing, looked worse than Mercy. Her face was practically burned off."
The two young men have been arrested by police.
It wouldn't surprise me with the deteriorating economy and with the viciousness that can be found in human nature that there is a spike in animal cruelty. A person who can easily hurt an animal for whatever fucked up reason, will have no problem hurting a human.
ok- from rage to composure-
I really do believe in Franciscan compassion for all living things.
If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men. ~St. Francis of Assisi
IF there is a transcendent principal it has to be compassion. For all the brutality and violence inherent within this world and within the human animal, the fact is as humans we can renounce violence. Instead seeking to hurt or harm life, we can extend loving compassion for living creatures.
"The human spirit is not dead. It lives on in secret.....It has come to believe that compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit itself to mankind.~ Albert Schweitzer
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In some news relating to puppy mills.
Cesar Millan speaks out against puppy mills.
Every year, more than one million purebred and "designer" dogs are born and bred into puppy mills ― often packed in tiny wire cages, neglected, dehydrated, dirty and chronically sick, with little or no human interaction or affection ― and then sold legally to pet stores throughout the country. Now, in a powerful new Dog Whisperer episode, Cesar Millan goes undercover to witness the horrors of puppy mills firsthand and works to rehabilitate dogs who have never known a world outside their overcrowded cages, or learned how to interact with humans.
In North Carolina a bill passed to crack down on puppy mills. It came in response when last February nearly 300 dogs were seized from a Wayne County kennel.
a veterinarian, who was called to the scene, described what she saw to lawmakers.
"The buildings contained such a stench of feces and urine, it was almost overwhelming despite the fact I was wearing a gas mask," Dr. Lisa Dixon said.
No dog should have to live in such conditions.
In Washington, Governor Gregoire signed a puppy mill bill.
"The new bill would enact penalties for those animals who are kept in squalor, who are not given accurate ventilation. Those animals who were are unaltered to use exclusively for puppy mill breeding," says Susan Michaels with Pasado Safe Haven.
And in good news in the area I live an MSPCA animal shelter that was closing due to the bad economy is being bought out by a nonprofit Dakin humane society
SPRINGFIELD - A private humane society will purchase the former MSPCA-Western New England Animal Care and Adoption Center on Union Street, and reopen in August as a regional animal facility.
Dakin Pioneer Valley Humane Society of Leverett announced the pending $1.2 million purchase from the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals during a press conference Thursday morning at the building, 171 Union St.
The MSPCA had closed the building a month ago, citing financial hardships including devastating losses to the agency's endowment fund.
I found this story about dogs that help a blinded veteran...
Army Master Sgt. Dexter Durrante hasn’t driven his Chevy Suburban in nearly two years, not since he was blinded during a training exercise at Fort Bragg.
"That’s one of the biggest things you miss — the driving," Durrante said, sitting on a sofa in his Fayetteville duplex last week.
He was joined by his friend, Sgt. Douglas Cereghin, who also is blind. Cereghin wore sunglasses and a cap that read, "Life is good."
A couple of dogs — Shepherd and Zihn — lay at the soldiers’ feet.
On April 5, Durrante and Cereghin were among seven military veterans who graduated from the Guide Dogs of the Desert program in Palm Springs, Calif.
They spent much of the 28-day program living with their dogs and developing a trusting bond.
Through the use of guide dogs, blind students at the training center are provided loving companionship and opportunities for life-changing independence.
Lastly on behalf of my lil' terrier boy
please consider signing the ASPCA pledge to fight animal cruelty. Thanks!