While Dining With My Family I Received A Text ....

While dining with my family I received a text containing a photo of this dog, brought in by spcaLA Humane Officers. Upon their insistence I showed them the picture. Each gasped audibly enough to attract the attention of other diners, neither had seen anything like it before and both looked at me puzzled. I asked them what they thought I did every day to which they replied "attend cockfights, inspect elephants, and rescue animals during disasters". While all true - it is not all right.

courtesy spcaLA

Dogs like this are everywhere. They are the bulk of cases handled by legitimate spcas and humane societies. They are common and routine residents of shelters. They are the silent majority.

They are not the cases that attract attention, as media has "done" them before. They do not represent the big sexy issues, such as puppy mills and dog-fighting, used by "national" groups to fund raise millions of dollars. They are a dime a dozen and boring.

As such, legislators more interested in publicity, hype and reelection, gravitate toward more high profile topics. For example, laws are constantly enacted to address dog-fighting while there are actually very few dog fighting cases prosecuted. Conversely, we have been struggling (for years) in California to strengthen the animal cruelty statute to address a dog like this of which cases abound! These dogs are everywhere. They are the silent majority.

These silent sufferers are caught in the cycle of the mundane. Not interesting, not known, not good for ratings, and not heard. That is why my own family remembers my involvement with a Ringling Brothers unicorn, (a goat with a horn surgically implanted in his forehead) and not with the starving "dog next door".

Well, your spcaLA hears these animals and will keep rescuing them as we have been since 1877. If you would like to speak for them please contact the governor and ask him to sign SB 917 which will increase the penalties for neglect and put them on par with intentional cruelty.

I submit to you that allowing a dog to become this, is intentional.

Article first published as Let's Outlaw Unicorn Fighting-Then I Can Retire on Technorati