Taking Action For Animals

I was so pleased to be a part of the Taking Action for Animals (TAFA) Conference in Washington DC this year. We worked hard on several bills: The Horse Slaughter Act, the Downed Animal Act and Baby's Bill, a bill to make things a little better for dogs in puppy mills.

And while I always enjoy writing about the important work that the HSUS and other organizations do every day, I know that others do it much better than I do and so I invite the reader to visit Wayne Pacelle's blog on the HSUS.ORG website.

But I want instead to write about how perplexing it is to me how cruel people can be, especially to small, sentient animals. I knew that there is evil in the world, but at TAFA we heard excuses that made absolutely no sense, i.e. "animals don't have emotions, they don't have feelings" and this is why it's ok to treat them like chattle and to comodify them. How any thinking person can say something like that with a straight face and feel that others will believe it is beyond me. And these words are spoken with great authority, as if there is no discussion necessary or even invited, the matter being settled merely because someone uttered the statement. But truly, if one understands that animals have the same nervous systems as do we, the same capacity for fear and loneliness, the same hearts that beat and break within their chests as the ones that beat in ours, how can they say such stupid things?

When discussing food animals, the excuse is usually, "Well, animals are made for food. If we didn't breed cows, they wouldn't have life. Cows are bred for food." Thankfully, many of us don't believe that to be true, and even if we did concede that point, that cows were bred for food, that speaks not to the horror and pain of the abatoir. The adrenaline pumping, the fear coursing through the bodies of the animals about to be slaughtered, watching their own being butchered even as they stand in line awaiting their turn, these animals certainly suffer the panic one feels when faced with their imminent death. Think about being in a plane suddenly losing power and going down, with no hope of survival, and maybe you will understand billions of cows must feel every day.

The little dog we met, Baby, for whom the puppy mill bill was introduced, is a lovely little white poodle who was bred over and over for nine years before she was rescued. Her vocal chords were cut with a scissors! A scissors! Because the monsters who ran the puppy factory did not want to hear her cries for help, for relief, for release. So they slid a pair of scissors down her throat and cut her vocal chords. I have heard of people "debarking" dogs surgically and I thought that was bad enough, but this, this is beyond cruelty. I often wonder how people who do these heinous things find the peace to fall into sleep each night. They must drink themselves, or drug themselves into a stupor. How else could they put the deeds they have done in perspective.

They, in their infinite wisdom, say that "what goes around comes around" and "they will get theirs in the end" but I don't know if that is true, and if it is, if it happens fast enough for the rest of us. And that is why there are laws to protect animals from people; more laws in fact than protect people from animals. And that says something about our society. In fact, it says something profound indeed. Bye Ce

Back in the saddle

I am so very happy to be back at the Humane Society of the Palm Beaches! It has been five years since I left there and I can't believe how much things have changed in just five short years. Many of the staff are still the same, and that's really good because all the good people stayed, or are coming back. I still have some reservations about working in the shelter and seeing all those sad, sad faces. I found a cat in the cat room who had been there since November of 2007! I can't believe how long he's been there. I think it's very hard to place cats, everyone wants kittens. I so wish I had a big, big farm with lots of land far, far away from any roads or cars or trucks and I would have lots of "barn cats" who could live on the premises and just be free. But of course I would take twenty and in a day or so twenty more would have taken their place. It never ends and that is the tragedy of working in a shelter. I keep looking for Siamese, and wondering what I will do if I find one. It will be very hard for me to leave a Siamese behind. Or if I find that perfect Maine Coon that I have been waiting for my whole life. I don't think I can bring any new cats into the household though. The existing resident cats wouldn't like that and have made that perfectly clear every time Rocky and Clyde come to visit. Maybe they would get over it, but they are all older now and so set in their ways.

And there is a very sad greyhound. He's a love. He's black with a little white blaze on his chest. He reminds me of my sweet Eli who I miss so much but he's much, much thinner, scrawny, actually. He is usually up there at the cage door, always the first to be curious and interested to see who is visiting. But not today. Today he lay in his bed and all my efforts to make friends with him were in vain. It's all so very, very sad.

I am looking forward to going to Capital Hill this weekend to work on all the pending bills. I always feel as if I have made a big difference after going to this conference. This is not a conference with a bunch of people with big egos just wanting to see and be seen. No, this is a very important work time to get a lot of work done. There was quite a bit of controversy over TAFA last year because of the humane farming activities, but that does not seem to be an issue this year.

I have to try to talk myself out of taking home this little white, long-haired Chihuahua. This little guy has a whole lot of issues and I am not sure I am strong enough to deal with them all. He's not housebroken, of course, and that will be an issue. I wonder how long it will take him to learn? But there is the bigger issue of his emotional stuff. He really has a lot of psychological issues, as do all the other dogs in the shelter who came from the Tennessee puppy mill. I pray that they will all recover, and find loving and caring homes. I am proud to be a part of the effort.
Bye Ce