My friends and fans can PISS me off worse than the animal rights activists. Every now and then, I get message that say they are glad for my blog; something they wouldn’t dare do because of fear. They usually go on to add how they just try to stay below the radar, mind their own business, hide. You know what, that isn’t much of a compliment because what I hear in that message is YOU go take the risks so I can benefit while not being bothered with things like fear.
Guess what, I’m scared too and, but for this blog, I have a lower profile for risk than many of you who write to me. Those of you who sit on your asses doing nothing while we all lose our rights are the ones who REALLY piss me off. I can deal with “stupid” people, they don’t know any better. Ignorance, knowing and turning a blind eye, doing nothing; now that PISSES me off. It isn’t that I don’t understand because I most certainly do. But why should a handful of folks take YOUR risk as well as their own?
The term “walking wounded” means someone with an injury that can’t be seen. It’s most often used to describe a closed head injury but also includes any injury that isn’t visible. We are ALL, each and every one of us, Walking Wounded in one way or another. These invisible wounds are often from being blindsided in one way or another. The human existence is in reality a dirty nasty business and, more and more, we are hidden from the truths. With less knowledge, comes more of the likelihood of being blindsided emotionally. We’ve long known that this easily leads to what we call PTSD these days but we hide more and more each day putting ourselves and our children at even greater risks of joining the Walking Wounded earlier and with more severe trauma. However, it certainly is not a new phenomenon.
I could use the stories of WWII shell shock but I think you know those. Instead, consider this being your first significant encounter with animals, having been mostly shielded from animals and the reality of their lives until you were in your twenties and then: "had taken some abandoned cats and kittens to the shelter. Not having understood the staff’s use of the term “put down,” she thought that the cats would be put up for adoption; when she asked some minutes later to see them, presumably settled in their cages, she was shocked to hear they had all been immediately euthanized."
I can’t help but feel some level of pity for Ingrid Newkirk, the founder of PETA, because that’s apparently how it all started. Sure looks to me like a severe case of PTSD that, instead of being dealt with and treated, was fed. First by herself as she took a job at a shelter and, being disturbed by how the animals were treated and euthanized, she says that “In the end, I’d go to work early, before anyone got there, and I would just kill the animals myself…” Well, I suspect there’s a darker story there too but we’ll never hear it; however, one can certainly imagine the effect of a traumatized person, alone in a facility, killing animals alone as dawn breaks - WOW. I suspect she became what she hated and has been trying to make amends ever since.
Ingrid’s PETA is fanatical in its beliefs and the fanatical activists who have joined her merely feed her own illness. And all of it started because of a “secret” and the euphemism we use for killing animals (to put down), when what really usually happens to animals when they go to “shelters” is that they are most often killed; plain and simple. It has been so since animal shelters began and is so today. The biggest change is that governments now seek out animals to take to feed their killing facilities.
The only way to heal wounds like this is to lay the truth, ugly though many may consider it, out for all to see. I grew up knowing where my food comes from and was shielded from little. I too am Walking Wounded but probably less so for that knowledge that made me less susceptible to being blindsided by what seems a horror if it isn’t explained in context. We can’t help but think of animals in the way we would think if the same was done with or to humans but that is in itself a product of insufficient exposure to animals.
To me, death is better than some forms of existence but that very question of whether life should be terminated and who gets to make that decision is a fundamental one. While another may disagree with how we treat our animals, letting another make the decisions without our consent is a big step and not one that should be decided lightly when it transfers our rights to others; especially when it transfers our rights to anonymous governmental entities who are often using untrained or poorly trained volunteers to actually make the decisions. All too often, these decisions are now being made by activists whose fundamental beliefs contravene both constitutionally and legally protected rights as well as the majority of the public's beliefs.
What is most frightening about the animal rights activists is that so many of them start with stupidity that morphs into true ignorance as they simply refuse to hear the truth and facts, hell bent on maintaining their delusions and supporting their own form of Walking Woundedness.
I find it helpful to try to understand others and, despite my pity and understanding, I can’t condone supporting their delusions about animals where they tread upon the rights of others in their efforts. There are so many ways they could actually help animals but we have no control over THEIR actions.
What each and every one of us CAN control is how we react to them; how we respond; what WE do for ourselves. Do what you can to protect yourself but hiding in the shadows and expecting others to fight for you is just plain unacceptable as you are aiding and abetting the activists by doing so. Get out there and inform people because your silence is contributing to animal deaths in shelters and the ranks of the rescues are now under attack. Ah, yes, you rescuers who thought all those laws to “get the breeders” were a good thing now find those laws turned on you. Many of you were warned. Suck it up and play nice with the other animal owners. You breeders (yes, I saw your hackles go up reading those words but you have yet to give me a better term and, since I’m not a breeder, I can’t say “we”) have to suck it up and play nice with the rescuers. You 2 groups drive me crazy because there’s so much crossover that so many of you just pretend isn’t there to ALL our detriment. And you 2 groups are the ones out in front while individual pet owners are mostly in the dark because you’re so busy with little internal pissing matches that you aren’t out there educating the public!
Those in the farming industries, livestock industries, are finally starting to say they’ve had enough so education will be coming from them. I can only cheer and say: FINALLY! Most in those industries are practical and non-emotional about the animal issues. We, rescuers, pet breeders, and mere owners (“mere” is an inside joke that many of you will likely understand), would do well to follow their lead and suck it up when it comes to our over emotional responses, especially when dealing with each other and most especially if we want the support of the livestock industry.
The in fighting over how and who does it “best” has to stop and anyone who’s perpetuating it makes me think they don’t care as much about animals as their own egos and getting their own way – just like the animal rights activists who don’t care about anything but money and getting what they want no matter how wrong they might turn out to be. You or someone else may turn out to be right but the simple fact is that there is rarely that black/white; right/wrong bright line we all want because life is messy and often appears ugly. The silence and secrets of animal husbandry, caretaking, death and even slaughter for food simply must end because it’s killing our animals and our rights.
And back to those of you who would be silent, minding your own business. Has anyone ever told you that NOT making a decision is MAKING a decision? Your silence contributes to the activists pockets and causes; makes me think you don’t care very much about animals either. Your silence may save the few animals you care for today but it puts all future animals at risk. What would you do for your grandchildren’s rights to have animals? Will you selfishly protect yourself and those few pets at the risk of all the future ones and the animal experiences and food of which your grandchildren will be deprived? Or will you suck it up, fight back that fear, and get involved? I know exactly what I’m asking. I dropped out long ago but I’m back because I have a child and he may have children. It would be easier and less risky to keep a low profile and mind my own business too and I’m sure not happy to take the risk but I’m sucking it up and doing so for future generations.
Our silence is KILLING animals TODAY. Start SCREAMING your objections. And, if you don't, you have no one to blame but yourself if they knock on your door, take your animals, and there is no one willing to speak up for you just as you now refuse to speak up for others.