Food For Thought: Reflections on Double Standards

I love this image.

About ten years ago, I was in Vietnam and I was horrified to see dogs and cats squirming in small cages, barely bigger than their own bodies, a thought that still horrifies me.

When I came back to the United States, these images continued to haunt me in my memories. Those poor animals, in that sweltering heat, cramped together, with hardly any room to move around.

The Vietnamese sold these cats and dogs in open-air markets as pets. Eventually, the animals would be freed and sent to live with people. But seeing them in those cages, in triple-digit, equatorial heat and muggy humidity, nearly broke my heart.

It took me a while - another seven years - to put two and two together and realize that what we do in North America to pigs and chickens and cows is really no different.

We have social taboos about cramming dogs and cats into tight, tiny cages like the ones pictured above, where they hardly have any room to move around. Sadly, we don't have any taboos about dropping them off at shelters and letter other people do our dirty work for us. But there should be a taboo against that.

Nor are there any taboos in our society about cramming livestock into cold, dark spaces, where they'll live short lives of being frightened and disoriented. There should be a taboo against that, too.

Images like this one help bring our double standards into perspective. We should feel an instinctive revulsion about the prospect of imprisoning any animal in a tight space, not meant to be inhabited by a sentient being, as much as we feel that revulsion toward doing the same thing to a human being.

The Vietnamese typically set their animals free from those little cages. Can we say the same about our pigs, chickens and cows?

Remembering Animals in War

Kudos to 89-year-old Lloyd Swick of Ottawa, the capital of Canada, who is going around the city raising $100,000 to build a memorial to animals that have perished in past wars. After all of the money is raised and the memorial is complete, Ottawa's Confederation Park will boast one of the world's only monument to animals that perished in the seething cauldron of warfare.

To quote Swick:

"We need the monument because our casualty list of close to 60,000 in the First World War and some 48,000 in the Second World War would have been much higher had it not been for the support of our animals," he said. "The animals managed to bring the guns forward, the animals that managed to bring the provisions forward, the animals that evacuated our wounded. We owe a great debt to them." (Source)

Some additional information on Swick's crusade is worth highlighting here. Some key grafs:

The [monument] for animals in war will be connected to the existing Boer War monument, which commemorates the 1899-1902 South African battle where Canada sent some 50,000 horses to haul cannons, soldiers and ammunition.

Canada still uses animals in war -- specifically in Afghanistan where dogs are used to search for mine clusters as well as search and rescue operations.

Historically war animals have included glow worms for navigation and as reading lights, pack camels in India and Africa, elephants in the jungles of Burma, mine clearance dolphins in the Gulf War and an estimated eight million horses or mules which have been killed providing mobility to soldiers and equipment in the past century alone.

Swick deserves a salute and heartfelt thanks. Animals have made great sacrifices, not only for Canada, but for men and women around the world, in thousands of conflicts throughout history. Their deaths are largely forgotten, almost never acknowledged in monuments and rarely - if ever - getting a sentence in the history books.

What a blessing to us that this 89-years-young man has the courage and the wisdom to raise the money to build this memorial. We can only hope that his one-person crusade will lead to other, similar ones. Anything designed to help remember and honor the animals deserves our applause and heartfelt thanks.

You call that "Throwing the book at 'em"? I call it pathetic...

Case 1: On June 17, 2010, Bobby Elliott of Merritt, British Columbia, tied his Golden Lab mix named April Rain to the back of his truck and dragged her around. He claimed he was giving her "exercise." A kind bystander find April Rain badly injured and took her to a vet. Elliot's punishment?

He was sentenced to 30 days of house arrest and another 60 days of arrest with certain conditions.He is required to pay $2100 in restitution to Angel's Animal Rescue, the organization that rehabilitated the dog. Elliott is banned from owning a dog for the next five years. (Source)

Case 2: Kisha Curtis, age 28, employee at Klimaaxxpromos Girls, an adult entertainment agency in Newark, N.J., starved her pit bull and then tossed the emaciated dog down a garbage chute on March 16, where the poor, whimpering animal was left to die. Once again, a kind soul found the dog and saved him by taking him to the vet. The pit bull was named Patrick (pictured above) and he has become a Facebook celebrity. Legions of wonderful folks from around the world have donated to help this beautiful dog (Source) Meantime, latest reports indicate that Curtis is out of jail and her $10,000 bail has been dismissed. (Source)

Case 3: In Rhode Island, State Rep. David Bennett is fed up. And with good reason. He was outraged when he heard that local authorities fined a Providence woman $50 for "mistreating" her Labrador retriever mix after the starving animal was found suffering from dehydration and hypothermia. Bennett decided the animal protection laws weren't strong enough. He has co-sponsored a bill that will fine animal abusers $1,000 and prohibit them from owning an animal for five years. The bill awaits a vote in Rhode Island's General Assembly. (Source)

The common thread running through these cases is obvious. Across North America, anti-abuse laws are not strict enough. Too many sadists, sociopaths and thugs are able to adopt animals. And when they harm those animals, laws do not serve as deterrents to prevent them from engaging in these types of abuse in the future. If anything, the laws in place in most parts of the United States and Canada encourage abusers and fail to protect the abused.

Good for Representative Bennett and others like him who are out there fighting the good fight on behalf of animals. More people are needed in the trenches. Our anti-abuse laws don't go far enough. The time to toughen those is long overdue.

Look at the lines of pain etched into Patrick's face (above). He makes a beautiful "poster dog" on behalf of the need to clamp down and hit animal abusers hard.

Required Reading: Gary Francione's piece "And What About the Four Other Dogs?"... What a Masterpiece!

Anyone who has been following this Blog knows that I'm a huge Gary Francione fan and that his work has had (and continues to have) an enormous impact on my thinking. Even on those rare occasions when I do not entirely see eye to eye with what he says, I always respect his views 100 percent. He is a great thinker, an inspiring figure and just an all-around wonderful person.

I was completely blown away by his Blog Entry today on his Website Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach titled "And What About the Four Other Dogs?" Please, please, please take a minute to read this extraordinary piece. This truly is one of the best examples of writing I have ever read on the subject of animal rights, period.

Read it and you'll see what I mean. In this piece, Francione does what he does best: Cuts right through the bullshit and gets to the heart of the matter. In this case, he is writing about a little puppy who became famous across North America because he was one of five dogs who was euthanized by animal control authorities in Sulphur, Oklahoma. Amazingly, this beautiful puppy (pictured above) somehow survived being euthanized and actually emerged from the ordeal in perfect shape. When the story generated headlines, it triggered an avalanche of public support for the puppy in the form of donations and offers to adopt him. He has become something of a canine celebrity following his ordeal.

Francione's beautiful piece takes to task a public and a culture that celebrates animals who somehow - usually quite miraculously - manage to "escape" death, whether it's in factory farms (usually by getting loose and running away) or in this case, when a puppy somehow didn't die from an injection that should've been lethal. These animals are often singled out as "mircale animals" and they win the public sympathy by being portrayed as plucky and lucky. Meantime, the thousands, millions - ultimately billions - of animals that are killed, day in and day out, are forgotten, relegated to mass graves or the meat section of the super market.

I cannot recommend this piece by Gary Francione (pictured right) enthusiastically enough. It is Francione at his best: Brilliant, right to the point, and full of humanity.

The Animal Abuse Scandal that Shook Canada

The killing of 100 sled dogs in Whistler, British Columbia, has caused a huge scandal across Canada.

Newspapers have been fixated on the "dog slaughter," which allegedly last April, when post-2010 Winter Olympics demand for dog sled rides plummeted. A company called Howling Dog Tours Whistler Inc. allegedly shot the dogs and buried them in a mass grave.

In the past few weeks, news of the slaughter has escalated into a full-fledged national scandal. The British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals launched an investigation of the alleged slaughter.

Stories about the bloodletting have been all over the television and internet, and newspapers across Canada (and outside the nation) have editorialized about the brutality. Howling Dog Tours Whistler Inc.

The company responsible for the dog slaughter issued a statement saying

that the dogs to be euthanized were too old or sick and not adoptable. These dogs live to run and were not able to do so and would have had to be kept in cages with the result that they would have had very poor or virtually no quality of life. (Source)

This as an after-the-fact rationale that sounds like a big load of B.S. Of course, it is regrettable that the terrible treatment of factory farm animals does not stir the same sort of reaction as the violent slaughter of 100 sled dogs. Most people who become outraged at the news of dogs being shot can't be bothered with stories about pigs and cows and chickens meeting violent deaths.

That much is impossible to deny.

But I keep going back to what I've been saying all along on this Blog. We've come a long way, baby. Twenty years ago, an incident like this would have likely passed without anyone noticing. Thanks to years of struggles by animal rights activists, outrages like this one are now capturing media attention from far and wide. The Internet has helped spread the word. And companies caught treating animals so horribly either go on the defensive or they go out of business.

We'll take all the outrage we can get. Bless the public for being so furious about this nightmarish story. Notice has been served to companies that brutalize and kill animals. People who are shaken to the core and outraged by the treatment of these dogs are potential converts to the cause of animal rights. If a story like this can upset them, other instances of animal abuse can have a similar effect.

The key is to keep chipping away, like waves battering cliffs. Eventually the wall will erode and collapse.

Stories of Hope: A Beautiful Reunion!

Try to watch this video without getting choked up. It is yet another reminder that animals have emotions, memories and form bonds. We already knew that. But seeing it - really seeing it - is deeply moving, and reminds us why we support Animal Rights and Veganism.

Stories of Hope (Dec. 3): Animals Helping Animals

This is truly one of the most amazing videos I've ever seen. It's from a couple years back (2008, I believe). It was shot in Chile and shows one dog rescuing another dog, an injured dog, on a busy freeway. The first dog shown in the video is hit by an oncoming vehicle, but this particular story has a happy ending: The second dog in the video, the hero of this story, saved the life of his injured comrade by - as the announcer points out - wrapping his paws around the dog and dragging him to safety. It is an astonishing video - and it shows what we already know: Animals are nothing short of incredible, to the point of being profound. They're intelligent. They form bonds with each other. And they have tremendous courage.

We didn't need this video to tell us that. Still, it's always meaningful to have our beliefs verified by something so harrowing and moving.

Heroic dog's tragic end shows the tragedy of euthanasia

The news from Arizona is grim. A heroic German Shepherd mix named Target, who saved the lives of 50 soldiers in Afghanistan by alerting them to a bomb, was euthanized in a suburban animal shelter by mistake.

Apparently, Target had recently gone missing and was picked up by the pound staff. She was mistaken for a stray and "put down." Ruth Slater, director of Pinal County's Animal Care and Control division, said in a statement: "When it comes to euthanizing an animal, there are some clear-cut procedures to follow. Based on my preliminary investigation, our employee did not follow those procedures." (Source) Target was actually owned by Sergeant Terry Young, who adopted her in Afghanistan. Needless to say, Young and his family were distraught to hear that Target was euthanized so fast after turning up at the shelter. Young reported her missing on Friday. He found out she was at the shelter, but it was closed on the weekend. He raced over there Monday to pick her up. By then, she was dead.

Target was a nationwide celebrity. She appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and her story was known to millions. Her heroism in Afghanistan transformed her overnight into a larger-than-life dog in the United States.

Her death is a tragedy. But, when you think about it, it's no more tragic than the deaths of animals in shelters across the country. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) has noted:

"The HSUS estimates that animal shelters care for between 6-8 million dogs and cats every year in the United States, of whom approximately 3-4 million are euthanized. At this time The HSUS can only estimate these figures because there is no central data reporting agency for animal shelters. This overpopulation of companion animals is widely acknowledged across the country by professionals and experts in the animal welfare field. Overpopulation is a tragedy. There are simply not enough responsible homes for all of these wonderful, innocent animals. At this point in time, it would be impossible to humanely house every unwanted animal in the United States." (Source)

That's just in the United States. The scene isn't much more hopeful in Canada, and it paints a troubling picture of throw-away societies that place little value on the lives of animals. Many times on this Blog, I've praised the brave men and women who work in shelters across the country and are given the unenviable task of having to put these animals to death. Make no mistake about it: They don't want to do it. It makes them heartsick to euthanize animals. It is the ultimate act of love and compassion. When I condemn the "throw-away" culture, they are 100 percent exempt.

No, I'm talking about the collective culture of people who are so shortsighted they don't spay and neuter their pets or take adequate care of them. Obviously, Sergeant Young did not fall into this category. He adored Target, and so did his family. And there are countless other animal owners who take wonderful care of their pets.

But there are also owners who can't be bothered to take decent care of their cats or dogs or other companion animals. And there are more than you'd think. Too often, they drop off innocent and unsuspecting animals at shelters across the country and expect others to do their dirty work. Not all people who take their animals to shelters fall into this category. There are a number of pet owners who have legitimate reasons for giving up their animals, and such partings often end up being very painful. Yet there is no denying that there are also many who drop off animals at shelters due to their own responsibility or unwillingness to take adequate care of these family members.

Target was the victim of this widespread irresponsibility. Shelters are filled to capacity due to that irresponsibility. And this heroic dog paid dearly for that. But so do millions and millions of other companion animals, each and every year. Their lives are as sacred as the life of Target, the dog that won so many hearts for her bravery in Afghanistan.

You will love this!!! I promise!!! :)

Watch this video. It's a minute long. IT IS AMAZINGLY FUNNY! It's a clip from The Tonight Show of a fantastic little dog busting a bunch of balloons. It truly is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. I'm so happy to post videos like this one from time to time. Believe it or not, I get really, really tired of blogging about depressing stuff. And this video cheered me right up!

Food for Thought: A great billboard from Mercy For Animals

This wonderful - and highly effective - billboard has been appearing in numerous places across North America, thanks to the terrific group Mercy for Animals. It poses a simple, yet profound, question: Why love one but eat the other? That question is loaded with so much meaning, when you think about it. It cuts right to the heart of customs that have gone unquestioned for generations. It shines the spotlight on the way we do things in a way that most questions fail to do. The ad campaign began last year, with a limited number of the billboards appearing in Michigan. They have since spread to other states: Colorado, Nevada, Minnesota, etc. I understand that similar billboards have been appearing in Ontario, as well, particularly in Hamilton and the Niagara Region.

We can only hope that more people will see it and begin to grapple with the question it poses. I have said it a hundred and fifty times on this Blog, so I'll say it a hundred and fifty-one right now: Denial is our biggest enemy. Tear down the wall, one brick at a time, and you'll get results. Look at me. One year ago at this time, I was still an omnivore, devouring meat without giving it much thought. Thanks to good people who cared enough to tear down my wall of denial, I put two and two together and changed my ways. If I can do it, anybody can do it. And it is billboards like this one - and documentaries like Earthlings, Death on a Factory Farm, etc. - and vegan pamphlets and other seemingly little things that get people moving in the right direction.

THIS VIDEO WILL MAKE YOU SMILE!!! PLEASE WATCH...

I adore this video!!! My daughter Madeline sent it to me on Facebook and now I have to post it on my Blog. It's a video of a little collie puppy playing with a baby. It is a total scream! The dog keeps running around and the baby is cracking up like mad. The video really cheered me up. I post so many downer videos on this Blog that every now and then I have to put one up that is happy, like this one. Please, please do yourself a favor - watch it! You'll be glad you did...

From the "Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder" File: Remembering a Pooch Named Ellie

She was judged "The World's Ugliest Dog" in Animal Planet's 2009 "World Ugliest Dog Pageant." (Did you know such a thing existed???)

Her name is Ellie. She's pictured above. And she passed away the other day at age 17. (Source)

I don't know about you, but I see nothing ugly about this Chinese Crested Hairless, who hails from the small town of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. In fact, I think she was downright cute! With her bulging eyes, wild wisps and big pink tongue constantly sticking out the corner of her mouth, Ellie was a favorite at dog shows across the country. She also made lots of appearances at Humane Society fundraisers.

Farewell, Ellie. We will miss you! But Ellie's name lives on. I think it's simply wonderful that the mayor of Pigeon Forge has honored Ellie's fundraising abilities (Ellie's appearances have raised more than $100,000 for her hometown over the years) by designating November 12 as Miss Ellie Day. How cool is that??

Another major loss was the death of actress Rue McClanahan (Blanche from TV's Golden Girls) at age 76. Rue was a vegetarian most of her life, a gentle soul who loved all animals, and one of the earliest card-carrying members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). She was also a supporter of Farm Sanctuary (so was Golden Girls co-star Bea Arthur; and of course, one of the other Golden Girls, Betty White, is a legendary animal advocate). McClanahan used her Hollywood clout to stick up for the animals.

Rue will be sorely missed.

Not only was she a talented actress, but she was also a person who made a huge difference.

Tearing Down the Wall of Denial, One Brick at a Time...

Jeez, I hate writing about sad things so often. You probably don't believe this, but I do have a sense of humour. I do laugh at things. I don't just focus on downer issues.

But part of the purpose of this Blog is to tear down, brick by brick, the Wall of Denial that so many people build up around themselves when it comes to the suffering of animals (unfortunately, this Wall of Denial often obscures the suffering of human beings as well).

One of the worst examples of this denial are those people who do not spay and neuter their pets. Granted, there's no way around the fact that there will always be a certain number of feral cats out there whose population is, at best, difficult to control.

But there are also a lot of people who don't spay and neuter. And the Wall of Denial protects them from seeing the results. Some people understand what's at stake and they're doing a great job of spaying and neutering their pets. But we need to change the "throw-away" ethos that pervades our society. We throw away everything. Old magazines. Old computers. Old TVs. Unfortunately, people and animals also get discarded. Time to tear down that Wall of Denial and show what happens - what really happens - when a life, human or animal, is tossed out, like yesterday's trash.

Well, here's a hole I'm punching into that wall. Animal shelters, as I've said on this Blog before, are constantly euthanizing cats and dogs who can't find homes.

I've discussed the Toronto Humane Society at length in the past, so I'll pick a different one. How about one in the States? Yesterday, the Raleigh County Animal Shelter in Beckley, West Virginia, received 35 cats in one day. As the local newspaper, The Register Herald, reported, "Almost all of them - and about 10 more - were euthanized that day. Shelter officials say extremely rampant overbreeding has the cat section at capacity and there is not enough room for the scores of cats coming in every day."

I know I'm sounding repetitive, but the men and women who euthanize these cats are the unsung heroes and heroines of society. They do it because they love the animals. And they only do it when the shelters are out of room and the animals can't find homes.

Jim Kearney, the adoption counselor at the Raleigh County Animal Shelter, mentioned the toll that euthanasia takes on the men and women who have to carry it out:

It’s overwhelming. Some of these are beautiful animals. It’s very sad. It’s very hard. All we end up doing all day long is taking cats back to be euthanized. There’s no alternative. We tell everyone that, if they leave a cat here, it will probably be euthanized today. There is no room for it.

How many pet owners who refuse to spay and neuter ever see the results of their irresponsibility? How many of them understand what happens on a daily basis inside of these shelters? How many know the pain, the suffering, these cats endure in their final moments? Why is the public so afraid to see the bodies of the cats piling up to be sent off and cremated? Because it's distasteful? It's the truth. And more people need to confront the truth rather than denying its very existence.

If more people could see - and feel - the tragedy of abandoned pets, then a lot of lives would probably be saved.

People Making a Difference: You Don't Need to Look Too Hard to Find the Saints

Sometimes, I have to look on the bright side. Otherwise, I get too pessimistic.

And there is a bright side. The bright side being the countless decent men and women and even children who fight for the rights and well being of animals.

I'd like to take a moment to single out Yang Xiaoyun, age 60, from Tianjin in northeastern China. This woman is a true heroine who has gone into debt, risked angering family members, and works every day from sunup to sundown.

Why? To take care of countless stray cats and dogs. In fact, her shelter houses some 300 abandoned cats and dogs. Many of them had histories of being abused and mutilated before arriving at her shelter. She calls them "my children."

As Yang pointed out in a recent interview:

None of my friends or family members support my work. I had two properties. One was a wedding gift for my son for when he gets married. I sold his place in 2000. He was very angry at me and ran away from home for three years. He couldn't take it anymore. (Source)

Luckily, Yang's son returned to help her. But she was forced to move numerous times due to complaints from neighbors. Each month, Yang faces $2,000 (US) in monthly expenses. She has managed to get by thanks to the donations of kind people around the world.

Yang has an interesting story: Years ago, after her husband died in the 1990s, she grew despondent. She felt like her life had lost meaning and she was contemplating suicide when she found an abandoned kitten in a ditch. She found something else, too: Her calling.

But it's not easy. It's a thankless job. It takes her nine hours a day to prepare food - which typically consists of cooked leftovers mixed with meat - for all of the animals in her shelter.

Yang has a Blog, but it's in Chinese. Like so many wonderful people taking care of animals, she is looking for donations. More information on donating can be found here.

Yang is the kind of person who helps restore my faith in humanity. She is doing great work. She is making a difference. The animals in her shelter are loved and well cared for, many for the first time in their lives.

Yang's struggle is daunting, yet her compassion is yet another source of inspiration for those of us who refuse to give up the good fight for our animal friends.

I have posted a video on Yang and her shelter below. Have a look if you get a chance.

God bless you, Yang Xiaoyun.

Mandatory Reading: "What's a Dog Worth?" in Los Angeles magazine - investigative journalism at its best

The recent issue of Los Angeles Magazine featured one of the best articles on life for dogs and cats inside of animal shelters that I've ever read. The article, called "What's a Dog Worth?" by Jesse Katz, was an amazing piece of investigative reporting. Warning: It is not for the squeamish of faint of heart. That's because the article takes you right into the middle of the packed Los Angeles animal shelters. A quote freak at the start of the article sets the tone: "Los Angeles kills more animals in its shelters than any other metropolitan area in the United States. For that to change, we will have to figure out what to do with the pets none of us want."

This article should be mandatory reading for every adult in North America. It is uncompromising. It is beautifully written. It is profoundly tragic. The author, Jesse Katz, introduces us a brave and kind-hearted Latino euthanasiast named Javier Lopez, who comes from a working-class East L.A. household. Lopez is the true hero of this story - a man who loves animals so much that he is willing to lovingly administer the substance that will take the life out of their bodies.

Lopez has his work cut out for him. Author Katz gives us a sense early in the story of what Lopez is up against:

The animal control agencies of L.A., including those of the city, the county, and two dozen smaller municipalities, put to death 104,841 animals last year, more than any other metropolitan area in the United States. About 35,000 of them were dogs, 55,000 were cats, and the rest a miscellany of rabbits, roosters, snakes, and guinea pigs. That is the good news. For decades the number has been so outlandish—250,000 a year in the 1970s, 150,000 a year in the ’80s, 125,000 in the ’90s—that even a decline this monumental somehow feels hollow. In 35 years Los Angeles has exterminated more than 5 million animals. The toll is at once appalling and abstract. “I call it every community’s dirty little secret,” says Ed Boks, the new chief of the city’s animal shelters.

It is a heartbreaking story - long, yet gripping and ultimately full of despair. I almost stopped reading it, for the same reason I almost couldn't watch the documentary Death on a Factory Farm. It upset me. It shook me up. It left me sad and hopeless. But you know what? That's a good thing. Because it is only by being shaken up in such a fashion that we come to terms with the tragedy of what is happening around us and then maybe - just maybe - we find the courage within ourselves to do what little we can (and believe me, it ain't much) to change the system for the better.

Please, please read this story. I can't say you'll be "glad" you did. But you will be enlightened and you'll have a better grasp of what, exactly, is at stake. There is a lot of work to be done. The animals are worth it, though.

Economic Recession and Animals

It is easy to forget that the current economic recession is taking a toll on animals. There have been stories too numerous to count on Google News and other news outlets about animals suffering from the effects of hard times. The problem seems to be especially bad in Atlanta and the surrounding counties, where animal shelters are euthanizing dogs and cats in record numbers. (Source, Source) According to the article linked here from the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the counties around the Metro Atlanta region put down 30,000 cats and dogs (that includes the counties of DeKalb, Clayton, Cobb, Fulton and Gwinnett).

Animals are often the forgotten victims of hard times. It is important to remember that good people are reaching deep into their pockets and trying to help in whatever way they can. The Atlanta Journal Constitution story also quotes Gwinnett police Lt. Mary Lou Respess, who's the director of the county's animal shelter, as saying: "We are trying to help citizens who are having financial trouble by giving them food donated to the shelter by local merchants. The shelter also helps sponsor events at local pet supply stories to promote adoptions and is planning a free spay and neuter clinic this spring for pit and pit mixes, the most common breed at the shelter."

Atlanta is but one example. This is a problem across North America, not just in the United States, but Canada as well. One of the most powerful accounts of animal euthanasia can be found on the website Animal Advocating.com. It's called "Confessions of a Euthanasia Technician." Everybody across North America should be forced to read this article so they know what happens to so many pets who end up animal shelters and so they develop a deeper respect for the brave, loving and compassionate souls who euthanize animals on a regular basis. I can think of no better way to wrap up this Blog Entry than to include a lengthy quote from the piece:

I think about a sweet little black lab who stayed up for adoption for 2 months before we finally had to put her down because we didn’t have the room, and her time was up. She looked at me with her big, brown, trusting eyes, gave me her paw when I asked for it, and licked my face while I injected her with euthanasia solution. I think about the man who brought us ten, 8-week old puppies, to be put to sleep because he was going on vacation and didn’t want to deal with them. I think about the way that they so unsuspectingly wiggled around and played with each other as I picked them up, one by one, and took their lives. I think about the countless, feral, mother cats, who watched in frozen horror as we took their kittens away from them, killed them, and then killed Mom. I think about that time that the Humane Society brought us 72, healthy and adoptable cats, to be killed all in one afternoon.

I wish I could I say that these were all exceptional cases; that this wasn’t what I dealt with everyday for 3 years. But the truth is; this is what every euthanasia technician faces every day in their job. And we do it because we care. Because we know that it has to be done by someone, and that at least when we do it, that animal will get that last little pat on the head, or scratch behind the ears. And every time a member of the public calls us an “animal killer” because they don’t understand the reality of what a euthanasia technician faces, it stings.

There is a well-known story about a euthanasia technician, who had a dream one night that she died, and went to heaven, and all of the animals that she had ever euthanized were behind the pearly gates, and they wouldn’t let her in. I would like to think that the animals would better understand why we do it than the general public seems to understand. I would like to think that they would appreciate the men and women that have stepped into that role so that they could ensure that this necessary evil was being done in the best way possible. Then again, maybe I am being idealistic, and it is just my way of keeping that armor whole, and free of cracks. I guess I will never know.

Not a Revolution, But a Step in the Right Direction...

Here's an interesting piece of news from China: There is currently a draft law under consideration by the Chinese government that would ban the consumption of dog meat and fine violators 15 days in jail and 5000 yuan ($735US) for individuals and 10,000 to 500,000 yuan ($1,470US to $73,529US) for businesses.

As ABC News notes:

The legislation was drafted by a team of Chinese experts who consulted with the U.S.-based International Fund for Animal Welfare and Britain's Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.... An informal online poll in the popular Chinese Web site Sohu.com already attracted more than 178,000 votes as of today. Some 56.8 percent voted in favor of the ban on eating dog and cat meat while 39.6 percent were against it.

Apparently, wars of words are raging over the Internet in China as we speak. "Cats and dogs are our favourite pets," wrote a Beijing resident. "They are entitled to their own rights. Why should people eat them?"

There is a very good likelihood that this law will be adopted by the government, and if it is, it will be the first animal rights law ever passed in China. That alone makes it quite a remarkable achievement.

In some parts of China, especially in the southern regions, eating dog is still popular. As China Daily notes:

Eating dog meat in China is a risky proposition, given that the country has no specific regulations regarding the production and sale of the meat, experts say.

Eating dog meat is a traditional folk custom in winter in south China's Guangdong province. Shenzhen is one of the hubs for dog-meat processing.

The current price is approximately 24 to 40 yuan ($3.5-5.8) per kg. Kennel after kennel of dogs transported from other cities are slaughtered each morning in some butcheries in the outskirts of this metropolis.

However, no specific standard has ever been created in China to guarantee the hygienic conditions of dogs raised for slaughter and their meat.

Unregulated pork, beef, and lamb sales are banned in China. However, due to the lack of regulation, the bloody slaughter of dogs cannot be legally covered.

Rabies is the only circumstance requiring quarantine for dogs. Even more dogs are slaughtered outside the standard butcheries without any official supervision.

The relevant regulations on the logistics and sale of dog meat are also nonexistent. Numerous local supermarkets and restaurants are infested with dog meat that may not be safe, experts say.

According to Yu Jie, a local medic, eating dog meat is unsafe because of parasites. Also, workers processing the meat from a rabid dog can easily become infected with rabies.

Article 28 of the Food Safety Law of the People's Republic of China says, "It is forbidden to produce or engage in the business operation of meat that has not been quarantined by the animal health inspection institution or has failed the quarantine, or meat products that have not been inspected or have failed the inspection."

"If dog meat is not quarantined before entering the market, then processing and selling it should be considered illegal," Zhu Bin, a local lawyer, was quoted as saying by Nanfang Daily.

The passage of this law would be a tremendous triumph for the animal rights movement in China. Let's keep our fingers crossed it becomes the the law of the land.

If this law is passed, the next step of the Chinese animal rights movement - and animal rights movements in other countries - ought to be to convince people that the lives of factory farm animals - cows, chickens, pigs, sheep, etc. - are just as valuable and precious as those of dogs. Human beings can more easily identify with dogs, for obvious reasons. The thought of slaughtering dogs does not sit well with most people, even in parts of the world where that sort of practice is more traditional.

But those of us who believe in animal rights have a responsibility to teach others that the lives of all animals are precious, whether they're dogs, cats, factory farm animals, animals used in lab testing, animals used for fur and leather coats, and pretty much every other animal - and human being - that exists. This proposed law in China is a huge step. Yet it is also only the beginning.