Beggars with puppies, Michael Vick, and an American blind spot the size of the sun.

[WilliamPitt]

Whenever a homeless person asks me for spare change, I give what change I have if I have it. If I don't have money, I ask if they want a smoke, and give them one if they say yes. If I have neither money nor smokes, I apologize. I'm no hero for this, and the "You're helping them buy drugs-booze/You're helping to give them lung cancer" argument against this practice does have merit.

But I do it anyway, mostly just because, but also because my New England Puritan/Calvinist roots make me worry, just a tiny bit, that the next homeless guy I ignore despite having change to give is actually Jesus on the comeback, and he's testing me, and I'll fail that test to keep my .53 cents. Yeah, I know, but still.

When I worked downtown several geological ages ago, I would pass about two homeless spare-changers every block or so. 99% of the bustling sidewalk traffic would pass them by without a glance. But one day, something changed.

One of the homeless men, one morning, was sitting on the sidewalk with his change tin in his hand, and an adorable puppy next to him. The same sidewalk traffic that had ignored him the day before suddenly flooded him with their change. Not long after, the homeless man down the block showed up with a kitten, and the traffic stopped ignoring him. Soon enough, the newest hip accessory for the homeless beggar was a pet to sit with them.

I was thinking about this while reading about the abhorrent accusations leveled against Michael Vick regarding dog-fighting. It's abomiable if true, and that cannot be denied. The outrage over this story is enormous, and that is absolutely as it should be.

But.

I'm a huge football fan, and so every Sunday from August to February I'm watching games. I hear names like Ray Lewis and Pacman Jones mentioned every weekend, their skills are praised, their talents feted, their accomplishments trumpeted.

Ray Lewis was involved in the stabbing death of another man. Pacman Jones was involved in a shooting that left another man permanently paralyzed. When these two things happen, there was outrage for a little while...and then nothing.

We as Americans have one hell of a big blind spot, I think.

We get outraged over football players killing and maiming dogs, but can abide football players killing and maiming other human beings. We give change to the homeless guy with the puppy, because the poor little thing has to eat, but pass the petless homeless guy on the next block as if he didn't have a stomach.

People should be outraged when animals are tortured. And they are, for every good reason on Earth.

People should be outraged when human beings are killed. And they are, for a while at least, sometimes, maybe.

The beggar with the puppy eats well. The beggar without one goes hungry. I think, perhaps, the blind spot that allows this is one of the main reasons we are in Iraq. If every Iraqi civilian had a puppy or a kitten, the war would have been over almost before it began, and a hell of a lot less humans would be dead right now.

Food for thought.

[BonnieJW]

1. Bless the beasts and the children.

It's old but it's true. They have no voice. How can we bear to see any human killed so brutally as they are in Iraq, but when we see a child bleeding, we also bleed? When I see a dog dead by the side of the road, my heart breaks. They give unconditional love and you just cannot beat that.

[Demeter]

49. Except the President Refuses Children Medical Care

He truly is evil, not just stupid, gullible, in thrall to Cheney and the PNAC NeoCons, Big Oil, etc,


Have no fear Will, you'll get to Heaven, and W never will. That's what makes it heaven, I suspect!

[Klukie]

2. Well I have to chew on this one for a while.....

but I have to say that my blind spot is brought on by the innocence/helplessness that a puppy, kitten, child, elderly person brings with them. When I see pictures of dead Iraqis, my heart always bleeds more for the child than the adult. I can't help it.

[eridani]

54. Mammalian hardwiring, I think

The Cute Reflex is there to keep us from strangling our crying, yelling helpless offspring at birth, and it spills over to the young of other mammals. (Insect metamorphosis might be esthetically awesome, but it sure isn't cute.) And there is the intellectual knowledge that a dead kid never got a chance to experience much of life. Dead adults have had a shot at at least some of the joys of life, so it seems not quite as bad.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

3. Old phenomenon.

Somebody sees a person get shot in a movie- meh.

Somebody sees a dog get shot in a movie- outrageous.

Take The Godfather. People get killed right and left. Everybody remembers the horse.

[eridani]

55. Michael Moore made that observation about Roger and Me

A black man got shot--no big deal. Teachers universally wanted to cut the scene showing killing a pet rabbit for food as too hard for their students to deal with.

[mikelgb]

4. we've lost our sense of humanity

[Sapere aude]

5. I always give money if I have it to the homeless or who ever is asking for money on the street.

I feel good about it and that person is a bit happier too I think. Where else can you buy happiness? I don't care what they do with the money. Buy a bottle of wine or eat or pay rent, it's not something I think about.

Once I gave a guy $10. I do OK and can spare it. His face lit up like a Christmas tree. All of a sudden he had many more options than he did a few moments before.


BTW, I was a homeless drunk/druggie myself for a time.

[Vilis Veritas]

6. The people in Muslim countries have been made to seem less than human...

That is the standard operating procedure to rally people around a war. It happened in WWII, just look at the archives

If you listen to the War Hawk Radio Network and the rants by the propagandist, it is all they speak about...the rantings of one such radio show host minimalizes then enemy to "those filthy animals".

I am afraid your little puppy has been turned into a filthy little sewer rat and no one stops to pet a sewer rat...

President Carter said it best in his nobel lecture:

“In order for us human beings to commit ourselves personally to the inhumanity of war, we find it necessary first to dehumanize our opponents, which is in itself a violation of the beliefs of all religions. Once we characterize our adversaries as beyond the scope of God's mercy and grace, their lives lose all value. We deny personal responsibility when we plant landmines and, days or years later, a stranger to us - often a child – is crippled or killed. From a great distance, we launch bombs or missiles with almost total impunity, and never want to know the number or identity of the victims.” Jimmy Carter


https://notes.utk.edu/Bio/greenberg.nsf/9809ef883fdb779b85257015006e1948/6b9c4f8a2b5c88fe8525705700117e64?OpenDocument

Peace

edited title for clarification:

[EFerrari]

7. You know I work with the homeless here and it's funny because

you can tell nearly right away if that puppy is a prop or a lifesaver, an anchor. That's not your point, I know.

We can't feed and house people but somehow manage buy into the lofty project "Spreading Democracy" which turns out to be ornately choreographed thievery.

Why can't we spread food and roofs? Maybe because the homeless have nothing that can be stolen.

[WilliamPitt]

8. Why can't we spread food and roofs?

It's not as lucrative as warfare.

[Vilis Veritas]

11. "War is a Racket"

Smedley Butler...

[EFerrari]

13. Exactly. The poor can't be squeezed as we're squeezing the Iraqis.

Poor women used to sell lengths of their hair. Maybe we should bring that back.

Very thoughtful piece, Will. You reminded me of the kids that used to sit on Haight Street with flea ridden pups and kits and how amazing it was to see such young people settle for so little. Maybe they knew something I didn't know.

[GumboYaYa]

9. So true...I never thought about it that way, but it is so true.

We (meaning American society) look right past human suffering all the time.

[EFerrari]

14. It's the obverse of the cult of the individual, I think.

It's the Bootstrap Fallacy. As I've said before, there are no orphans in wild dog packs -- too bad we can't do as well.

Fortunately, we didn't manage to obliterate Native American culture because it counters the Puritan ethic very precisely by teaching the interdependence of living things.

[pitohui]

10. i like this essay

i think a lot of the public's exaggerated outrage over "think of the children" and "think of the puppies" is a big fat cover-up for the fact that they care fuck-all about living, breathing, struggling adults

[astonamous]

66. Why can't we care about both? I do...

I can also see the very close connection to violent crimes against the voiceless animals and violent crimes against humans. A person who can do such things to an animal has already or never had any humanity...they are sadistic to the core.

[Peregrine Took]

12. I've seen some quasi-defense of him here - makes me want to puke. n/t

[SIMPLYB1980]

15. Plenty of us are outraged about both!

[Bluerthanblue]

16. it is possible some people connect

more easily with a person who is in need of shelter, who's showing their 'nurturing' side, as evidenced by the pup. It's also possible the pup acts as an ...'ice-breaker'???


The same example can be made for adults with children, or people who are 'pleasant to look at', for whatever reason, we are more apt to reach out to people with whom we can "connect" on some level.

It isn't fair- it isn't right, but it is ...'human nature'.

No one on this planet should ever have to go hungry, without shelter, the basic life necessities- not given the technology and abundance that exists within our own country. People hoard because they fear lack, or being in need, which leaves others needing...circle, circle, circle.

I am choosing to believe that human'kind' will live to see the day where our long future ancestors, will look back at us, and shake their heads at what social neanderthals we were.

But we can only change if our flaws are acknowledged- your post helps us see.
Thanks.

[LibDemAlways]

17. Right after Katrina I was at a book club with a

group of women, and one had just returned from NO where she had gone to help rescue people's pets left homeless by the storm.

I'm certainly sympathetic to the plight of animals in a situation like Katrina, but my first sympathies lie with the thousands of people left homeless. When I brought it up, her response was to the effect that the people "should have known better and got out" but the animals had no such choice. That didn't strike me as particularly compassionate at all.

[shireen]

27. She's an angel, imho

I believe she meant that people have a measure of control over their actions, be it individual and community actions, or electing representatives to act on their behalf. But animals (pets and livestock) are completely dependent on us, therefore, we're responsible for their well-being and protection.

In the case of Katrina, most people were rescued in the first few days. It was almost a week before animal rescuers were allowed in to conduct rescues. So, people did come first in terms of rescue resources. Even then, some people were found by animal rescuers and taken to safety -- they had been missed by the people rescuers.

Next time, it must be people & their pets rescued at the same time, and we need shelters to either accept pets or drop them off at emergency shelters staffed by volunteers. The Katrina pet disaster was horrendous. I did volunteer work for them over the internet, and it was one of the hardest, most painful things I've ever done.

[Marnieworld]

40. agreed

Not to mention the fact that by helping pets you are helping the people who love them as well. It must have been agony for so many people to have to leave their pets. They had to worry about just surviving and dealing with that grief simultaneously. Because of people like that volunteer, many people were reunited with their lost pet and I am certain that that provided real comfort for them as they dealt with reconstructing their lives in the aftermath. It's a sacred bond, an inter-species love story that we value by saving the pets. And yes, it's not about lack of compassion for humans, it's about acknowledging our responsibility to these creatures who are so helpless, clueless and vulnerable due to circumstances beyond their control.

[blues90]

18. I suppose one could conclude

That a pet cat or dog has no choice , they did not choose their situation nore are they expected to contribute to socirty , however a human whether by choice or circumstance is expected to participate in the game humans have invented , ie a job or pulling ones self up by their missing boot straps . People cast this as , I am doing my part working a job I hate so why share or I am contributing to possibly add more homeless to the already long list as if this sort of life style is to be desired by anyone .

Through the years I have come across pan handlers who one could clearly see were not down and out homeless , they had an aggressive plan . Now I see none of these here but plenty of homeless where i contribute what I can without judgement , if the change goes to booze this is not my business for I am not about to stand there with a list of well thought out questions to be asked so I can determine their needs , it is not my place .

Mind you I am just barely making it myself now days but I do not miss 50 cents or a dollar or a cig . I have given out two to three cigs and noticed that the homeless man shared these with his street friends , I have been offered a quarter for one cig but never take it .

None of this makes me a better man , it is just a choice I make .

[CookCountyResident]

19. N.F.L.

It's not nicknamed the National Felons League for nothing.

[PurpleChez]

44. What really bothers me...

...and I know I'm gonna get flamed for this....

is the suspicion that mistreatment or maltreatment of animals is becoming just another "trend" in certain subcultures. I taught in an urban middle school last year, and one of the reasons that the school tightened its internet access policy was because kids were visiting dog fighting sights. When I visit public computer clusters at the library I see some guys surfing dog sites as if they were in the privacy of their home. I have also worked in a hardware store and continue to work there weekends and summers and -- I'm sorry -- but when younger Black men come in shopping for chain (and we're talking HEAVY chain, like 3/8" proof) chances are good that it's to restrain a pit bull. (It often comes up in conversation.) Just a few days ago I read a story out of London that specifically alleged that dog abuse had become a "fashion trend" among "gang elements" and that it was being publicized on Bebo; it said that dogs are being abused for show in public parks. (One nice trick: pull a tree branch down to the ground, get the dog to bite it, and then release the branch so that the dog is whipped into the air.) And for years I have heard general horror stories about pit bulls and rotties bought essentially as fashion accessories and then treated poorly. I am absolutely, certainly, unequivocally NOT saying that everybody in the hip-hop world is cruel to dogs, and I'm well-aware that all sorts of White folks are rotten to their animals. I just cringe at the thought of someone trying to claim that it's different when it's part of one's "culture" -- and No, I don't think that's an overreaction, not after reading threads where people insisted that we mustn't criticize rappers for denigrating women as bitches and hos, because "that's what they hear."

[Uncle Joe]

20. I believe it's because puppies and kittens

are the least if not, most innocent of these. Jesus may have been speaking of children, however today, in many cases pets are our children.

By placing a pet next to them, the homeless person is making a statement which may be true or false about them, but nonetheless the message is compassion. The homeless person has in effect taken under his or her precarious wing an entity in an even more precarious predicament. The people in turn, feel this compassion and are prompted to act.

I also believe pets in general are as canaries in the coal mine when it comes to predicting human behavior. A child that abuses puppies or kittens for example is more likely to be abusive toward people as the child grows older.

[endarkenment]

21. I lost my angry pony. nt.

[WilliamPitt]

22. Keep playing that same note.

Maybe he'll come home.

:P

[endarkenment]

26. ..

You dish 'em out, you get to get them back.

I actually liked this essay. I am still having an issue with some of your other recent efforts. Eventually I'll get over it, but probably you will piss me off again in the meantime and I'll be back snarking. Oh well...

[WilliamPitt]

35. Welcome to the club

We get jackets.

:)

[shireen]

23. speaking for myself, an easy explanation.

I like animals.

I don't like people.

[WilliamPitt]

24. Fair enough.

Must make for an interesting sex life.

*ba-doom-boom-tss*

Kidding, kidding, kidding.

Quips like this are probably why you don't like people, I guess.

:)

[shireen]

28. yup. nt

[Tansy_Gold]

33. I tend to agree with you, shireen

There is also an element of trust, and I'm not offering this as a justification nor am I saying it's an accurate way to judge, but it's there.

The beggar may or may not be truly homeless, truly needy; the beggar routine may be that person's "gig." But the puppy or kitten can have no ulterior motives and is therefore seen as essentially honest. The beggar absorbs some of that innocence by osmosis, and we also see her/him as less selfish and more generous, more willing to share however much or little she/he has, thus prompting our own generosity.

Tansy Gold, with four dogs

[Johonny]

25. just think

of all the NFL players that committed DUI this off-season. These players all have quietly slipped into the NFL suspension system without a murmur from anyone outside a sports page.

[shanti]

29. same thing

as when homeless and/or beggars on the street have children with them....people open their wallets.

[LanternWaste]

30. I once had a wife....

I once had a wife who proclaimed her unconditional love for me often and loudly. She cheated, we're divorced.

I once had a dog who never told me about unconditional love, but practiced it at all times.

I love one of the two I mentioned very much. The other, not so much.


I don;t know why I mention this. As I look at my response, I see it has little to no relevance, but still...

[judaspriestess]

31. maybe, hopefully this will be the beginning

of change. Maybe this will be the catalyst that will make people finally draw the line in the sand and say enough is enough and create a domino effect. one can have this hope.

[NaturalHigh]

32. I don't know about Pacman Jones...

but isn't Ray Lewis in prison? I'd say there was a little bit of outrage for that to happen.

[endarkenment]

34. Actually no he isn't.

"The trial of Lewis and his codefendants started during the following spring. After the prosecution had presented its case, with little or no evidence that Lewis had committed any overt acts against the victims, Lewis's attorney arranged with prosecutors to dismiss the murder charges and let Lewis plead guilty in a plea bargain to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of justice<19>; he also agreed to testify against Oakley and Sweeting, who were each charged with murder. Lewis accepted this plea bargain, and he was sentenced to one year of unsupervised, unrestricted probation. He was also offered expungment of this record if he successfully completed his probation, and was not suspended by the NFL. He was fined a league record $250,000.

Oakley and Sweeting were represented by noted Atlanta criminal defense attorneys L. David Wolfe, Bruce Harvey, and Steve Sadow. Though all were acquitted in June 2000, the Atlanta Police Department and District Attorney's office believe Lewis's associates to be guilty. No other suspects have ever been arrested for the crime.

On 29 April 2004, Lewis gave a large monetary settlement to four-year-old India Lollar, who was born shortly after the death of her father Richard. This settlement (reported by The Baltimore Sun to be at least US$1 million) preempted the civil trial scheduled for 14 June. The suit filed by the Baker family was also settled. The terms were undisclosed."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Lewis_(NFL)

[NaturalHigh]

39. Didn't know that...

Thanks for the info. Who is the NFL player that killed (or had killed) the mother of his unborn child a few years ago and was sent to prison?

[bicentennial_baby]

61. Rae Carruth

[NaturalHigh]

64. Thank you.

I love college football, but I don't pay a lot of attention to the NFL. I knew that I had seen something on one of the A and E shows, though.

[WilliamPitt]

36. Nope

He made the playoffs last year.

[lapislzi]

37. My box-shaking experiences

I used to volunteer for various charities when I lived in South Africa. It sounds crass, but it was a big coup for your charity if you could arrange to be outside of a shopping mall on Saturday morning. These Saturday mornings were "booked" by influential charities months in advance. It was called "box shaking" in local parlance because the volunteers stood outside with their emblazoned cans, shaking the coins inside to attract the attention of passers by.

The SPCA always brought in the most money. Their cans were always stuffed to the gills. They would even have to bring in extra cans to hold the coins and notes that people couldn't wait to cram in there.

But donations for orphans (this was pre-AIDS)? Donations for the homeless? Donations for the disabled, diabetics, victims of domestic violence? People would push past me, saying, "I only give to animal charities." All the time. "What about the people who need help?" I would ask. "People should help themselves. Animals can't." We would go home and shake out our half-full cans, half-resenting the SPCA for its cute kittens when all we could offer was starved kids or toothless old people.

It's a valid answer, I guess, for some. There's no denying that animals are helpless, and require our protection. But as far as I'm concerned, charity runs across the board. I try to give with an open hand to as many as I can.

As for the Jesus thing...well, you never know, do you?

[NoodleBoy]

38. one of my dogs was owned by a homeless guy one or two owners before us

and it shows. she's really sweet, smart, and loyal, but would cower and hide at unusual times, like during storms, and, sadly, anytime anyone held anything somewhat resembling a rod. for the first few months, I couldn't even hold my guitar around her without her running away and hiding, or cowering if she couldn't.

since we got her, I don't feel much for the panhandlers with animals. it's hot here, and being covered in fur could only make being outside all the time worse.

[JitterbugPerfume]

41. sometimes a pet

is the only living creature that loves you.


I have very little that I can afford to give , but I'll be damned if I will ever be guilty of not giving it whether the needy person has a puppy, or not.

[Forkboy]

42. Al Davis invented the American motto...

"Just win baby!"

It's goes way beyond sports.

Good piece!

:thumbsup:

[JVS]

43. I think a lot of people prefer animals because in their heart of hearts they dislike people

And I don't think it is a coincidence that the people who own zillions of cats tend to live alone. They can't deal with people and overcompensate with animals.

[Beetwasher]

45. I Eat Puppies And Kittens

My breath smells like catfood and puppy chow.

[MasonJar]

46. Animals are innocent victims of man's plunder of the earth. They need

protection and consideration. Some people do also...then we have the bleeders like W and Dick.

[hfojvt]

47. I cannot remember the source

but somebody wrote, that if the government had tried to send people's pets to Vietnam the public would not have stood for it for a second, but since it was only their grown kids going, it was acceptable.

Remember the really early video on the news showing a terrorist group killing a puppy with poison gas? That seemed to encourage more Americans to put a blank check in W's hat.

My boss said last night that Vick will probably skate on the charges because of his money. If that's true, then two years from now, most fans will probably have forgotten about this too.

[MzNov]

48. There must be a special place in hell for the killing and maiming of

any living thing, especially innocent animals who rarely can defend themselves. We humans tend to move along to the next outrage, especially in this national atmosphere, but IMHO, the torture and killing of sweet dogs or kitties cannot be explained.

If it were up to me to stop the illegal invasion, I'd personally give every Iraqi a little animal, but somehow I doubt that would change the blood thirty bastards named Cheyney and Bush from blasting them all to smithereeens anyway. But I will continue to give the guy on the street a dollar or whatever change I've got on me.

These truly are times that try (wo)mens' souls. And I fear this great nation is becoming souless.

[proud patriot]

50. I have that worry in me too Will

It's not silly "the next homeless guy I ignore despite having change to give is actually Jesus on the comeback, and he's testing me, and I'll fail that test to keep my .53 cents"

When I had Federal Jury Duty this last winter I had to travel to San Francisco
everyday . Everyday I handed half a sandwich that I couldn't finish to a
Homeless person . The Government had bought the sandwich seemed silly to
carry food past hungry people while my belly was full on my way home with
cupboards filled with food .

:loveya: now I love you more ya ole softy :loveya:

[Jade Fox]

51. I remember reading somewhere years ago.....

that in the U.S. we spend more on our pets than we do on educating our children.

'Tho I am loath to say so on this pet-loving board, I'm fairly appalled by what appears to be more and more pets in the world with more and more time, money, attention, and affection lavished on those animals while so many people are wanting.

[LWolf]

52. I love both animals and people.

And I would love to see population controls in place for both.

Automatic spaying and neutering of all dogs & cats except those kept by responsible breeders.

Pets restricted to domesticated animals, with "exotics" returned to their habitats. Pets as companions, not as entertainment or status symbols.

That's just me.

I have exactly 4 living family members, when all extended family is included. I have 22 animals. They are not "pets." I have livestock and I have non-human family members. I like animals as much or more than most people.

[Neshanic]

53. Very nice, but I think that there is no blind spot.

I lived in Baltimore in the late seventies, and there were many homeless on my walk to college at the Maryland Institute. One particular homeless person had a box with a kitten. he was always on the same spot on the way, and I always gave a quarter to him. A few blocks down on a certain stretch there many times would be a another homeless person, but this one was rather scary in his actions, but had a cat always pinned in the bottom of the shopping cart. It was painfull to see this poor cat under all the blankets and stuff laying on top of him. I would give this person money also.

One day after passing the guy with the kitten in a box, comfortable on a blanket sleeping, I came upon the man with the cat pinned under the all the stuff in his shopping cart. I gave him money. Then I said the cat looked uncomfortable under all that stuff, and maybe if there was a small cage he could put him in, and I would buy it. He became very agitated. He did not want any part of that.

All of us are caretakers of this planet and it's life. The dogs and cats that we love we made a pact with them, because of our desires to make them in all sizes and varieties, we made that more than special deal with them to protect them and care for them. In return they give us everything.

The two homeless people. One chooses to care and love it's small cat, the other most likely suffering from mental illness does not, and the cat suffers because of it.

People know this. People know that choices are made every day by individuals who will not realize what and why they do the things they do and do not care about any of the ramifications of their choice. But they CHOOSE. We choose. Everyone has the Karmic moment when passing a homeless person. Does this one deserve, the next one not? I have done that. I have been approached by obvious scammers, and they get no money; others apprach and I give them sometimes a twenty, and in one case after talking for an hour, a hundred.All this is part of our human world and we pay with pleasure and pain.

Our animals have no choice in joining our lives. They had no choice. These dogs had no choice; that is what is so heartbreaking. Vicks dogs are all part of the trust that we must keep to our pets. He failed.

Michael Vick was pushing a shopping cart filled with dogs.

[nam78_two]

56. Yes and no- on a superficial level, there is a certain amount of truth to this.

But, I think on deeper examination, the way we treat the vast majority of the animals in this country pretty much mirrors how we treat the poorest and most unfortunate humans here and elsewhere.


The outrage on the entertainment pages of magazines or the comments of talk show hosts are not the best indications of the real situation of animals as a whole or people as whole. In my observation we are pretty equally callous to both. And as our callousness toward one grows, so does the other, almost in lock-step. In general the source of compassion, whether it is toward animals or toward humans, is the same.

I have always seen a lot of truth in Gandhi's statement about the values of a society being reflected in how it treats its animals (animals being symbolic of the most powerless/helpless segment of our society-they are part of our society now-we have given them no option). I think our treatment of animals and humans is consistent in that we have a huge emotional response to "cute" animals (puppies, kittens, some birds) and we are largely indifferent to the suffering of the billions of animals that are factory farmed for our consumption. We similarly have a huge emotional
response to the problems of the more attractive of our fellow Americans (btw when I say we, I don't mean DUers-I mean Americans as a whole), but many many people are sadly fairly unmoved by the sufferings of people who look very different from us, who are suffering in remote parts of the world. Within America, we can see how invisible the homeless are and your puppy/kitten story illustrates that perfectly.

I saw pictures of the throngs of people marching to "Free Paris", because Paris Hilton had to spend 23 days in jail for a DUI. I think 5-10 people is about the best we have ever been able to cobble together for some of the "End homelessness" rallies some groups I have been with have had.

We certainly have a large blind spot as a society, but I don't think it is about animals vs. people. Imo it is about the invisibility of the suffering of both animals and people who lack the plumage, so to speak, to attract our attention :-|.

[a la izquierda]

57. For what it's worth...

one of my two dogs (both rescues) was rescued from a dog-fighting hell hole in California. He does not like men he doesn't know and is scared to death of most other dogs, in addition to quick movements, brooms, loud noises, chains, etc. etc. I can only imagine what must have happened in my dog's early life. He is not big, he is not a pit bull and he's certainly not mean. Thankfully, his "owners" didn't kill him, because honestly, he's the best thing that has happened to me. I have little patience, sympathy or caring for anyone who abuses/kills animals and kids, because they are essentially defenseless. WE are supposed to be their protectors. But that doesn't mean that I care any less about adult human beings. If Vick is guilty, he should be punished. But punishment for killing a dog is not nearly as harsh as that for killing a human. I think it should be, but that's just me. If Vick is guilty, he is nothing more than a common thug, but fortunately he was caught and it sheds light on a horrible practice that really does need to be addressed. What is wrong in a person's mind that they feel dog-fighting, cock-fighting, etc. is a normal activity?

And I have to tell you, my friend is a Katrina survivor and his family's biggest concern was getting their horses out of the area, then their pets. But they have money and could afford to do so. Some people probably left their animals because they didn't care--but I could tell by peoples faces the agony they felt having to leave their pets behind.

[lonestarnot]

58. OK Will Pitt. You screwed the fuck up on this.

:toast:

[Katherine Brengle]

59. You said what I had planned to say today --

I support animal rights and I would never EVER downplay the importance of safeguarding helpless animals.

I also support human rights and I would never EVER downplay the important of safeguarding ALL humans.

It's pathetic that we, as a society, can't understand this.

[sinkingfeeling]

60. Great food for thought, Will. Makes my mind go to the core question I've had for a long time..

Why is America one of the most violent places in the world? Why do we 'worship' the military to the degree that we're willing to spend half our revenue on growing and improving it? Why do we have so many random acts of violence? Why don't we simply revere life in all forms and spend 'our' money saving the people and animals of this country and the entire world?

[glitch]

62. Did Lewis or Jones make a business of murder? Place bets on outcomes?

Breed murderers, and murder those who failed to murder well?

As you do unto the least you do unto me. Some feel animals count in that equation.

[LisaM]

63. Pacman Jones and Rae Lewis probably mistreated animals too

It's a major indicator of sociopathic tendencies.

[ecstatic]

65. Ray Lewis was cleared and Vick has not had a trial yet

Guilty until proven innocent, or innocent until proven guilty? :shrug: