Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Euthanize me


Euthanize me.

Is that what the puppies are saying? I wonder because I’ve never heard them talk. Have you?

I love how all these good-for-nothing shelters “euthanize” dogs. Let me tell you something about euthanasia: it’s painless killing when there is no other option. That means an incurable disease. If you have a dog at a shelter for five months and you put it down, that’s not euthanasia. That’s murder. And our society is full of murderers.
Two weeks ago I had to quit the refuge where I was volunteering. I had been gullible enough to believe that they were a no-kill shelter. But when I went for a training to walk dogs that had certain behavior issues—biting, chewing their leash, etc.—I found out that they kill their animals and it’s not only when they have a disease but when they get too aggressive. There was a dog that had been adopted and he bit five people, so this shelter—one of the most “reputable” in New York—put him down.
They tried to explain to me what a terrible quality of life the dogs have at a shelter. But I know nothing of dog heaven, so I’d rather keep a dog alive hoping that a good soul will eventually adopt him. That is, unless the dog, mature and tired turned to me and said, “Euthanize me, please.” No, I’d probably just take him to therapy.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

You are an animal


Every time I hear of someone being compared to an animal I get annoyed. When someone is really fat you’ll often here the term “foca” (seal) in Spain. Or “the white whale”, as Gabriel García Márquez refers to Eréndira’s (evil, evil) grandmother in one of his short novels. Well, I think this is really offensive…to the animal, of course. What is happens is this…animals have everything human beings lack. In a day spent with a dog you receive a year’s worth of affection received from a human being. They are smarter, they don’t start senseless wars, they don’t live in the past, they hold no grudges, they don’t care about the future, they are independent, they hold their own. So no, you are not an animal. You are a simpleton, you couldn’t live in the wild for three days, couldn’t possibly be a predator without a gun, couldn’t survive an insect-sting without scratching or the stare of a tiger unless he’s at the zoo. You are human.