my.
god.
Ok, so I know I've been writing about dogs all the time lately and maybe you're sick of hearing it and are thinking I'm the crazy dog-lady... I've always said I'm a "dog person" etc, but I haven't volunteered at shelters, etc. Had never REALLY thought about the plight of abandoned animals...
And then I started learning about it...
Now, it is pretty hard to make me feel sick- especially just with pictures.
But this has done it.
Be warned that these are horribly graphic and gross. Dogs shot, stabbed, starved, frozen, infested with bugs, dissected...
It's maybe the most horrible thing I've ever seen.
in case you didn't think NJ was a shithole- here's "the mean streets of camden". Don't say I didn't warn you. :(
(Ok, I promise I'll post something nice one of these days...)
Tragic Love Story at the Pet Sanctuary: Ironically about pet santuaries. During my studies in germany I had to leave my giant tortoise at a sanctuary in California because no one would take care of it here. She(Sahara) was way bigger than already big basra. When I came home they told me it died when having sex in the heat box ( basically a dog house with a heat lamp they they would retire to at night) in the apple orchard they lived in. The male tortoise got on her back and broke a red heat lamp and she ate the glass and died shortly thereafter.
ahh... commenting on my own journal. ;)
This was my response to paul, but I decided to share-
no, I mostly agree with you.
It's just too big an issue.
and you're right- that's not even touching on meat, etc.
I was probably better off living in my little "dogs are cute i like dogs" corner of the world and not getting beyond that or caring beyond that.
this one just kills me because it's PETS...
animals that people chose to live with, and adopted, and kept in their houses... and then just threw them into the cold or whatever because they got too big or they had a new baby or something...
there was a pic of one dog that froze to death b/c they locked it outside to punish it for diarrhea.
that is the shit that appalls me.
the food industry is not so hot- but there's an end goal (feeding people). It's the cruelty for no reason that's horrible.
there was a pic of a dog with its intestines hanging out b/c some kid stabbed it to death. or the blood spot on the road from where someone shot a puppy...
and i don't know that sanctuary specifically, but I think places like that are wonderful... thanks for the link.
But like you said... there's just too much. It's not possible to rescue every abandoned animal out there and save it. And if you're not careful it will suck up your whole life and make you miserable.
I'm not sure how my friend does it...
He does what he can... when he hears about a dog that needs help he puts a page up on his site asking if anyone can help... and if they can, great. But if they can't... the dog probably gets put to sleep. I asked him if that makes him sad. And he said of course, but that he just can't save them all and he has to accept that and know that he's done as much as he can, which is more than most people try...
and the other thing that's sad is that when people really DO care, and DO dedicate their lives to it- most people just think of them as crazy animal nuts.
anyway... my point is just that yes, you're right.
but it doesn't make it any less appalling.
:(
Okay, I know that I a going to get so much slack for this but I am done caring about animal cruelty and a grand, theoretical level. It is just too consuming of an emotional topic that has no end. I spent years of my life freaking out because of cruelty to animals and how unjusitified it was. It is totally consuming. There is no end to the unjustified cruelty that exists. I will do anything I can to stop cruelty happening right in front of me but it's impossible to control all the cruelty in the world and I find it unjustifiable to complain about the poor dog when you eat other animals. Sometimes, I think the only people that have the right to even talk about animal rights are grow your own food, vegan, straight edge people.
I mean, even if you are vegetarian, there exists so much cruelty in milk, eggs, and leather, wool, medicine, cosmetics, cleaning products and even honey. It never ends. Even farming vegtables involves a massive amount of animal suffering in terms of pesticides and the effects on the environment. I guess it is the nature of being the top of the food chain.
Eventually, I think you just have to either stand up and become one of the people on the forefront of animal rights and designate your whole life to it and be prepared to let it take your life over or just give up because you will make your self feel miserable and cry all the time. I guess I am fatalistic but it was taking over my life in a bad way and yes I was crying all the time. I most specifically remember sitting in my friend Yvonne's kitchen and crying while she cooked steak.
I am saying this from experience. I swear, you have only scratched the surface of animal cruelty. Just try and think outside the dogs and look at all the stuff around you and how many things involved making animals feel really sick or die in order to make them happen. Think about it, they spend the whole year building a hive with honey for their fmaily of bees and then one day some asshole comes and steals it all so you can sweeten your tea.
If you decide animal rights is for you, maybe take a visit to the Farm Sanctuary near Ithaca :::link:::
They rescue animals and let them live out their natural lives there.