Tag Archives: equal rights

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Pet Patriotism: Nipping Animal Abuse in the Bud

As many of you know, I fight online against animal abuse.  I sign a bazillion petitions each day for different causes.  While wearisome, it is something I’m incredibly passionate about, and I’m immensely consumed by it.

So many of these petitions seek maximum legal penalty against convicted animal abusers.  Seeing all of this, and also seeing all of the spay/neuter propaganda (which I believe in as well), a new thought has come to me today.  What I’m about to propose is something radical and (currently) unconstitutional.

I propose convicted animal abusers be spayed or neutered so they can’t create any more people with their damaged mental facilities.  Some animal abusers might be genetically geared to do what they do, and some might be taught these things by their elders.  Either way, denying them procreative rights should substantially break the cycle, and would be a more than fair treatment for the suffering and possible death they’ve caused.

It’s been talked about, I’m sure, doing such medical procedures on convicted rapists, murderers, and abusers of children and others (which I think I agree with as well, especially with the former and latter).  This is just another progressive step in that line of thinking.  Maybe one the best ways to prevent animal abuse will be to limit the birth rate of animal abusers….

"Don't tread on me!"

Note: Just so you all know, I didn’t get Furgii pissed off here.  Her teeth were dry and one side of her lips got hung up on them.  I simply tucked the other side under to give her a “mad face”.  🙂

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For the Children

Those of you catching my blog for the first time will soon learn what those who’ve been around awhile already do:  I am obsessed with animal advocacy.  This ISN’T what I’m going to write about today, though.  Not exactly.

I’ve mentioned previously the circumstances surrounding my divorce, and that those circumstances centered around my stepson’s abuse by his biological father.  The trauma and emotions and everything just destroyed my family. The divorce may have happened anyway, but the abuse and accompanying trauma was the trigger.

So, how does this tie into my affair with animal advocacy?  Well, I’d gotten a dog as a way of moving on and into another chapter of my life, and the more I loved my dog (and who couldn’t), the more I felt the need to be involved with animal rights.  It occupies a great deal of my free time, but I love it, I love doing it, I love being part of positive change.  I love knowing that I may contribute to the success of any given campaign.

But I often imagine my ex-wife asking me, “Why do you do all of this for animals, and you’ve never done anything for abused children, for children’s rights?”  I often ask this of myself in my own voice, let alone hers.  I feel guilty for not doing it.  Shouldn’t this be a topic even closer to my heart?

I’ve seen what abuse can do to a child’s life.  My stepson’s reality became daily and nightly rages that would require restraining him most days, for he couldn’t get himself under control and he was a danger to himself and everyone around.  He was diagnosed as having dissociative flashbacks as the cause of these rages, and obviously these are not remotely anything a 7-year-old can handle.  He usually couldn’t make it to bed without incident.  He couldn’t even make it to school a lot of the time.

By his 9th birthday, he was living in therapeutic homes and hospitals for children in such situations.  By that point, my wife and I had already separated.  We were back together, and then not, while he lived in several such homes for the next 3 years.  Having lived all of this and seen it happen to the child I tried to raise as my own, shouldn’t this be a cause I’d more eagerly join?

He still has the rages.  Anything can trigger them.  I don’t get reports from his mother as to how he’s doing most of the time, and frankly, I really can’t stand having to deal with her anyway.  My stepson himself isn’t going to volunteer the bad things that have gone on in my absence.  I still see him every couple of months, but I’m almost more of an uncle in a way at this point.  But when I DO get the news of incidents he’s having, I die inside.  He’s 13 now; He’s already lost his childhood, and now his adolescence is jeopardized.  I don’t know how to handle that, how to accept it.  It’s a crippling feeling.

I think this is why I don’t get involved in children’s advocacy, especially that for abused children.  It might be too close to home.  I see so many things daily on the internet doing animal stuff, like dogs being tied up and thrown outside to freeze to death.  Puppies who’ve had their eyes gouged out and then shot with BBs.  These things make me want to curl up and give up so much of the time.  There’s so much wrong, so much evil in the world strictly dealing with animals.  It’s hard to go on sometimes.  I don’t know if I can do this same thing and hear the stories of what’s happening to kids out there.  I already know so much of it.  Maybe it’s partially because MY OWN trauma is tied up in these things.  I don’t think I can handle seeing what I’ve seen happen to animals happening to children, but I still beat myself about not being involved.

I can only thank whatever powers might be, mankind generated and/or higher, that there are people out there who deal with those things daily.  Some of those folks are and have been involved in my stepson’s life.  There are so many programs out there that you wouldn’t know existed.  Maybe one day I’ll be able to stomach doing it myself; I hope it doesn’t make me a bad person that I’m not involved at present.  But for now, all I can do about it is what I did back then: cry.

      

In Better Times

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“And I Say to Myself….’What a Wonderful World’….”

Previous entries of mine have talked about the evil in the world, mostly that inflicted on animals, and I am in no way doing an about-face regarding that.  There are so many disgusting and disheartening things to be seen daily.  But today, I want to do something else.  Yes, there are those things that are born in the darkest corners of the human mind, but there are amazing, beautiful, wondrous things, too.

There IS love out there, the love of people to make a CHANGE, and even to BE changed whether they want to or not.  I have been doing what I can to change the injustices out there, and I am but the metaphoric grain of sand in the movements I have joined.

I read an article today by someone who fostered animals, including dogs, but never considered herself a dog person until her family fostered, then adopted an aging pit bull, and helped him to live the rest of his years with dignity.  I also saw a PSA featuring a player on the St. Louis Rams football team for pet adoption.  I signed a petition for the protection of wild buffalo and other creatures.

But it’s not just about animals.  A friend of mine supports Somali Mam Foundation, an organization that’s fighting to stop human slave trafficking.  There are movements to protect children.  There are movements to save the environment.  Speaking of which, I received an email today that a bunch of jungle land that was going to be destroyed to make paper plates was saved, as per a petition I had previously signed.

There is darkness, but there is also light.

There are still individuals that care, saving farmland, saving the underprivileged, saving animals, saving the subjugated.  There are the people that even FIND OUT about these troubles in the first place, and act to CREATE the petitions I and others are signing, and making sure it’s all sent where it needs to go.  THAT can only be called LOVE.

It’s still here in this world, though it faces many obstacles.  But instead of focusing on those obstacles, today I want to focus on and be grateful for the people tearing them down.  Because I want to express what they’ve been expressing:  LOVE.

Somaly Mam Foundation

Becoming a Dog Person, article about the aging pit bull

HOMEGAME with PSA, PSA for pet adoption

(Look, I figured out how to install links!)

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The Ghost in the Machine

I have been posting for a few months now, and this is my 25th post (a milestone!).  What I want to say here today is how in awe I am that I’ve been able to reach readers.  It started with friends in one of my writers’ groups at a meeting about beginning/promoting/streamlining blogs.  I have since somehow magically gained readers, or at a minimum written posts that at least one of which landed on someone else’s computer screen, and they liked it enough to click “like”, to comment (nicely), and/or to even subscribe.

I thank all of you that have enjoyed what I’m doing and especially those that follow regularly.

I’m still very new to this, and very new to computers in general by comparison to most suburban Americans.  I’m definitely NOT a tech-savvy person.  I’m amazed that the wizardry of these computers and the internet has allowed me this “voice”, and for the digital ears to “listen” to it.  I’m grateful for that, grateful for the spirit in these electrodes and wires and satellite beams that lets us reach out to each other this way.         (Reaching Out)>>

But I’m most grateful for those that support what I’m doing via that spirit by liking and continuing to be open to what I have to say.  I most humbly appreciate that and thank you all.  Peace, love and light to you all, as my friend Jacquie would say.

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Prejudice and Boycott

I’m finding it sad today that I have to boycott so many businesses due to political reasons.  Mind you, the reasons are way more than valid, so boycott I must.

For starters, I’m officially boycotting Lowe’s as of this morning.  The home improvement store pulled its ads from a show about 5 Muslim families living in Detroit called All-American Muslim.  A right-wing group started a ball rolling to get public view of the show swayed to their way of thinking, quoted as calling the show, “propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda’s clear and present danger to American liberties and traditional values.”  Lowe’s did an about-face and pulled their ads.

Yes, their are some Muslims out there posing a threat to innocent lives.  There is no denying that.  But we as a race (the human one, that is) cannot continue to treat an entire people with mistrust and hatred.  There are also Catholics blowing up innocent Protestant civilians in Ireland and England for being Protestants.  We’re not (so far as I know) publishing propaganda vilifying the Catholic religion as a whole for it.

As a person born to a Jewish household, believe me, I’ve seen and felt prejudice, and yes, I have to admit that I’m scared when it comes to Islamic extremists.  As with Hitler’s Third Reich, there are Muslims who’d want me dead simply because I was born to members of the Jewish faith.  It would not matter to them what my own actual religious or political views are, what kind of person I am or try to become, just that I was born Jewish.  I grew up actually ashamed of it.  Every time a person in middle school dropped a coin, if the person then went to retrieve it, other kids would call him a “Jew”.  I was afraid that if they hated Jews so much they’d taunt someone who was not Jewish this way, what would they do if they knew I actually was?  And of course I was brought up hearing of the atrocities of WWII.

And I knew as an adult of extremist Muslim hatred, and 9/11 showed how close they could really get.  Oh, yes, I do know fear for simply having a different descent than others and being a target because of it.  But this fear cannot be allowed to dictate how Muslims, or people from Zaire, or Mongolia or any other background are treated.  This television program should be valuable as a way to open doors to love and understanding, and Lowe’s caved to the pressure of hatred and ignorance.  People of my background have been hated, and I will do my damnedest not to do it to someone else’s people.

The next boycott is of Chic-Fil-A, which is difficult because I absolutely love their product.  I don’t really eat fast food, but if I do, that would be what I’d want.  I haven’t done Burger King, McDonald’s, or Taco Bell in years.  Chic-Fil-A is a step above them all in quality (and digestibility), but they have gone on record against the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community.  They’ve even sponsored groups and legislation against the community, especially against same-sex marriage.

I don’t think it’s anyone’s business what I am, but I am in fact not any of the above.  I just know that humans come in various packages, and cannot help what those packages are, just as I had no say in my origins and makeup.  Human decency is human decency.

I’m aware that this company is founded, owned, and run by Mormons,which is of course a religious group, so it isn’t as much a surprise that those in charge of Chic-Fil-A feel this way.  But when you are a company in the customer service industry, those things should stay behind close doors.  You want to be a bigot?  Go ahead.  Just don’t be surprised when you have less customers than you used to, and you can count me as one less, too.  I incidentally also heard recently that they won’t allow Jewish franchise owners or managers, but I haven’t substantiated that at this point.

I have several friends from the LGBT community, and if I had to guess what percentage of people I’ve known came from the LGBT community and treated me respectfully vs. what percentage I’ve believed were straight and treated me the same, it would probably be 90% and 15 or 20%.

Another factor besides decency and solidarity with my friends that helps me in this decision is an interview I once read with Steven Tyler, the singer from the group Aerosmith.  In the article, Tyler was asked what his thoughts on homosexuality were considering his reputation for having relations with countless women over his career.  His response was that there is so little love in this world, that if love exists between two people, ANY two people, to let it be, accept it, and be happy that there is love.  That will always stay with me (unless Alzheimer’s sets in).  So my stance on same-sex marriage and the LGBT community is the same:  let it be, and be happy there is love.

My final boycott I will list here is of the Philadelphia Eagles.  I immediately boycotted the team when they signed the animal abuser and killer Michael Vick.  If you’ve read any of my previous posts or know me, you have probably guessed by now my level of animal activism.  The Eagles are my home-town team, but they are dead to me.

I always get the “he did his time” and “people deserve a second chance” crap.  My view is that if you are the kind of person who gets enjoyment from another creature’s suffering, you most likely will not change that.  If you can look a dog in the eyes, hear it crying in pain for mercy and not only not relent but continue, you will not likely stop being that person simply from 18 months in jail.

Vick is now employed as a quarterback again on a professional franchise making millions (although admittedly most of that money is taken from him to pay for damages incurred by his dog fighting ring and all of the legal expenses, plus other debts).  If this wasn’t enough, I even am made ill by the Eagles fans who vowed to not renew their season tickets and join me in at least some level of boycott, and then went and bought his jersey when he started scoring touchdowns.  Way to stick to your convictions (or even have them), folks.  But it wasn’t just the fighting of dogs.  I won’t brow-beat you with the details, but it was as inhumane and brutal a treatment of animals as it could have been.  There are 31 other teams I’d rather see win the Super Bowl.

So there is my Official 2011-12 Boycott list.  If you agree with anything I’ve written here and want to join me, welcome aboard.  If nothing else, I hope I’ve at least given you something to consider.
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Advocacy

I have  spent a lot of time on Facebook doing various “advocacy” things.  There are pages for The Animal Rescue Site, and other things I’ve come across along the way which will send me posts to sign various petitions, such as blasting Obama for okaying the sale of horse meat (yes, for consumption), protecting wolves from being hunted by helicopter, boycotting Chicken of the Sea for fishing practices that also ensnare rays, dolphins, turtles and other creatures, cracking down on puppy mills and dog fighting.  I also get a lot of these via email.

I am obviously for the animals, and would love to do so much more than sign petitions, but limited time and extremely limited money prevent this.  I am doing what I have the ability to do at present.  If you’re supposed to “be the change you want to see in the world”, this is my way of performing that task.

The one that has me using the most time is Pet Pardons on Facebook.  I don’t know how, but they get profiles of domestic animals in kill shelters which you can click on and “advocate” for their stay of execution.  Going pet by pet can definitely consume the afternoon, but when the posts come that an animal was spared, it’s just wonderful.  The down side is that, in order to accept my “advocacy” for any given animal, I have to agree to have Facebook post each profile I’ve clicked on, which I’m sure is annoying for my friends.  But the goal is to have everybody who might be willing to respond to do so.

Oh, I just remembered another petition I’ve signed: to stop the use of inhumane gassing chambers when shelters do end the animals’ lives.  They basically suffocate.  It’s terrible, and costly.

I don’t only sign things for animals, though, the first human-based thing that comes to mind is signing a petition to allow the continued access to birth control for lower-income women.  I don’t want to get into religion or other political or moral aspects surrounding such things, but accessible birth control should help us as a race avoid over-population, crowded orphanages and foster homes, children whose needs aren’t met, and landing people in the position of considering abortion, which I’m not getting into.  I’m just saying we can help it not get to that stage.

A lot of the time, especially with the animal activism, it’s hard to continue because there is just so much need out there.  It gets overwhelming.  I have made a lot of progress this year as a person, and I think doing this helps me to continue in this fashion as well as helping make change in the world (hopefully).