Thursday, February 17, 2011

Leave The Cat Alone

Anyone who can laugh at another creatures suffering had better be prepared to laugh at his own.

Bate
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I don't want to write this entry, but a long time ago I said I would, so here it is.

One day I was standing in a radio studio with another announcer, a young, talented, intelligent fellow, when we were visited by a goon, another fellow who used to hang around and do odd jobs trying to get on the air. He told us about his friend's cat. It seems his friend, for a joke, would put his cat near a wall, then rub its fur the wrong way and watch it hit its face into the wall. The goon then broke out in a big loud laugh. The other announcer and I were quiet for a moment and then he said that it seemed the friend was a sick person. I agreed. A dark cloud fell over the face of the goon. He didn't understand it but he realized there were at least two people in the universe who did not think abusing an animal was funny.

Something I have never been able to understand is sadism, the enjoyment people get out of cruelty, Why does the human race allow and find pleasure in bull fights, dog fights, cock fights and other forms of animal savagery? The Europeans used to enjoy bear baiting and horse baiting. Now there are fox hunts which don't allow the fox to escape. I heard of one which took 7 minutes for the fox to die. There are fox hunts in America that plug up the fox hole for the same reason. Is it so much fun to watch the dogs tear apart the living fox?

When I was a kid there was a guy who would catch a frog, tie it to a string, tie the string to a stick and hold the frog over a fire watching it jump around trying to escape from the flame, The guy would laugh as if it was a comedy act. I was always glad when the frog got away.

Here in my own county there are boys who will catch a feral cat and barbecue it, enjoying the screeching. Some people will catch a dog and skin it alive. They take videos of these things and post them for others to "enjoy."

In some places they poke out the eyes of birds so they will sing. Or cut off their feet so the birds can't land and will fly until they drop dead.

I recently read an article written by a man who was interviewing some boys who had been brought in on animal abuse charges. He was a crime reporter and said he thought he was fairly hard nosed and toughened about things, but the stories of abuse some of these boys told him made him gasp.

What has been woven into the human race that allows for the level of viciousness practiced by some twisted people? What can be done to cure it? How can compassion for our fellow creatures be injected into the sadists of the world? How can the urge for cruelty be erased from human consciousness? With no laws to protect animals in unenlightened countries, loosely defined and laxly enforced laws in more modern countries, the miserable lives of some laboratory animals, the wretched events in some slaughter houses and the barbaric cooking methods of some kitchens, it seems like a totally impossible thing to convince the human race to start taking care of its animals instead of torturing them.

I'll leave this topic now except to ask one more question. Eagles are cruel, predatory beasts. They don't like to eat anything that's dead. Instead they rip pieces off the squirming, writing creature under their feet to feed themselves and their young. Why is the eagle our national symbol?

DB
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WINTER QUESTION
(This is not a contest)

What was the most significant event that happened in 2010?

dbdacoba@aol.com

Only 7 responses so far

I await your answer.
DB
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4 comments:

Valerie said...

I think it was Franklin who wanted the turkey as our national symbol. Sounds good to me. So there are over 10 million animals in shelters in this country. Over half of these animals will be euthanized. Something is wrong here! We are supposed to be a compassionate country and we allow 5 or 6 million animals to die EVERY YEAR. We allow them to over-populate and don't want them and we won't fix the problem year after year after year. This is another problem added on to the abuse you spoke of.

I think these crazy sadistic people you speak of are the sociopaths and psychopaths of the world. They also hurt humans. They are commiting the crimes and abusing their wives and children and other citizens of this planet. I wish we could put them all on an island. We can't. I'm not sure what the solution is. Better laws? I don't know. Will it make them stop what they are doing? Doubt it. I think we should make longer sentences for people who abuse and kill. My opinion. This was a hard entry to read, but very necessary. Thank you, Dana.

DB said...

From my friend Marty

Dana,



Thank you for that necessary but terrible visitation to that horrible place. As an unformed beast growing up I could entertain things that seemed normal in society like hunting frogs and snakes birds in the swamps with bb guns and it was exciting. I even used to love to watch shows like Wild Kingdom and see the big cats bring down the water buffaloes and have 15 lions eating it alive jaw to jaw on its body. Now, if I see anything close to one animal about to attack another, I have to change the channel. The idea of killing sends a chill of horror through me and I don’t know if it’s connected to my own approaching mortality hanging like an ominous shadow in the back of my mind, or that I am more so being empathic to the life of another creature. There may be a mix, but when it comes to the examples of sadism you described, I remember a passage from a famous science fiction writer of the ‘50s or early ‘60s, maybe it was Robert Heinlein’s “Stranger In A Strange Land,” but the scenario was about the sport of bullfighting. What happened to teach humans a lesson was that when the matador stabs the bull with his estoque, or sword, for the final kill, instead of the bull feelings the sensation of being stabbed, everyone in the arena felt it. Bullfighting was immediately banned forever. I despise sadism and those who perpetrate it. I think the example of the bullfight should be applied to each and every one of them. Good point about the Eagle. Well done, Dana, and I like your preface about it being something you didn’t want to have to write.



Marty

Arlene (AJ) said...

Always a touching read, this one really touched my heart. I am such a lover of pets and the thought that anyone would hurt a pet makes me sick. Grew up with a neighbor kid who would hurt cats, I think of that often and hope that every day he thinks about how cruel he was and has changed his ways and isn't a cruel, sick guy to his family, mankind or any pet...but it will always make me wonder and not think kindly of him. If you hurt an animal intentionally, it says it all about you and I personally believe we'd be better off without you in this world.

Ken Riches said...

I have not tolerance for cruelty to any creature.