I have always had an interest in animals and their safety. My last blog got me reminiscing on the things I have experienced in life.
The first time I really saw animal abuse was when I was very young. I was just a child. If I remember correctly, my parents had discovered that someone… I think… abandoned two dogs. I am pretty sure they were both white poodles. My parents went into the home to get them out. One of the dogs had an embedded collar that was infected and half covered with flesh. I will never forget that. I am 30 now and it’s burned into my memory. I remember the feeling it gave me too… sadness, empathy for the dog, and disgust. That was probably the beginning of my interest in the safety of animals.
I got a job when I was 17 or 18 working at the Capital Area Humane Society as their Animal Cruetly Unit dispatcher. That job changed the way I viewed the world. I saw things that most people could only imagine. Starvation, abuse, neglect, and abandonment.
One incident really stands out in my mind. I was told I had to stay later then usual to help bring in a pit bull who had been in a dog fight. Everyone else left for the day and I was the last person there. One officer arrived with the dog, rushing to try to save it’s life. The pit bull had lost the dog fight so the owner shot him in the head with a gun. He was still alive. The officer needed assistance so I had to press my fingers onto the bullet whole in his head to try to stop the bleeding. I will never forget that. The dog lived and was part of an ongoing cruelty case.
There was another dog who was brought in on animal abuse. He had been beaten and was afraid of people. I was allowed to keep him in my office and try to socialize him while I worked. He was so timid and scared. You could just see that he thought we might beat him at any moment.
My last blog reminded me of another case that came into my office where someone hung a dog by it’s neck in a closet.
I haven’t done it in a while, but I have volunteered here and there for ride-alongs with the Humane Officers (I haven’t worked there since 1998/99). One of those times we had to climb inside an abandoned house where squatters lived to assess the condition of some cats. It’s was a scary disgusting place.
Another time, I went with the officers to aid in a search warrant and seizure. This guy traveled for months on end and left all these cats in his home with no food/water to multiply. I personally caught 15 out of 20 something cats. Kerry, the boss, called me the “cat wrangler” that day. This house was so filthy with urine and fesces and everything in the home was destroyed. The air was so thick with hair, dander, and amonia that you couldn’t hardly breathe. I have mild allergies and by the time we were done, I couldn’t breathe and was having chest pains.
You might ask why I would talk about such terrible stuff. I think it’s important that people know these things really happen. There really are sick people out there who just don’t care one bit about the suffering of animals. Seeing things like this have made me see the true nature of a lot of humans. It’s scary and sad. It’s not taken seriously enough. Punishments for this type of behavior is not harsh enough. Animal abuse laws are not strict enough. This is happening far too often. Every day, somewhere on this planet, an animal is suffering at the hands of a human.
Some of the people who abuse animals do it because they enjoy or get something out of the misery and suffering of animals. Other people do it because they do not believe animals have any conscience and that they have no feelings. And the rest of the people who do it, just don’t care about it either way and don’t think twice about what they are doing. These people are sick. They need serious help or they need to removed from society.
