Saving Navarro

Americans were shocked to learn about a cat named Navarro who was narrowly saved from being eaten in New York state. Police stopped 51-year-old Gary Korkuc of Cheektowaga, New York, and found a beautiful black and white cat in the car's trunk marinated in oil, crushed red peppers, chili peppers and salt. Korkuc was planning to devour the poor cat. Korkuc told the police he planned to eat the cat because it had been "mean" to him. (He later denied plans to eat the cat, telling a local radio station "that's conjecture and that's an assumption.") Navarro is pictured here on the right. (Source)

Unlike so many of these gruesome tales, this story has a happy ending. Korkuc was caught before he could eat Navarro. Another resident of Cheektowaga, a cat lover, adopted Navarro and changed his name to Oliver and now he lives in a loving home. "Navarro spend the last night curled up on a bed in his wonderful new home," noted the SPCA. (Source)

You can probably predict what I'm thinking. "Cows and pigs and chickens deserve to live as much as cats..." - that sort of thing. But I'm also very thankful that this story has a happy ending. So many of these kinds of episodes end badly. Really badly. There's a wonderful friend on Facebook who is trying to stop a cat hoarder in Van Nuys, California (left). If your heart can stand the tragic video she made, please try to watch it below. This will give you some idea of the awful lives that hoarded cats live, cramped in unbearable conditions, living in the filthiest conditions imaginable.

So yeah, we do have a double standard to some degree. Cats are seen as more sacrosanct than, say, pigs or chickens or cows. But there are still a lot of cats out there who suffer. And I'm thankful than Navarro has a good home. Thankfully, there are still plenty of good people out there who care about animals.