Friday, July 28, 2006

Amazing Grace

I was having lunch and browsing news sites Wednesday afternoon and came across a small headline: "Dog survives gas chamber" or something close. I got curious. I clicked to see the video. There was this picture of this little dog and I could hear the commentary from the lady in the humane society (pound) who was saying that this dog survived 30 minutes in the gas chamber. I have heard someone say that before, if puppies don't get adopted for quite some time, they are "done away with". How morbid! But I never took the time to research that and I thought that was a statement without merit. The video I saw disturbed me greatly and I am sure must be upsetting to every other person, dog lover or not.

The lady also went on to describe other graphic details, such as "... there was another dog which was on top of this dog with fluids oozing, and Grace only foamed at her mouth..Once I saw that, I knew I had to keep her with me for life...." If only this lady had decided to adopt the pup 30 minutes earlier, the dog would have had a totally different fate. Its odd that they call animal shelters "humane societies". While what they do is the opposite of their definition "Characterized by kindness, mercy, or compassion ". I looked online this time and googled the topic. I was amazed to see the numerous sites regarding this topic and requesting petitions. An example is http://network.bestfriends.org/animallawcoalition/news/5838.html

Makes you wonder the value placed on a living thing's life - how disposable living things are (even human beings) - you breed them per demand and you gas them if they are out of style or in some way "defective". I don't know why the "human" society condones this.

8 comments:

Survivor said...

Interestingly, just today, during workout at Curves,I was talking to a lady about the mental hospitals during 70's in the US. There was one very close to where we live, and was supposedly a very cruel one, where people were admitted even for depression and were given very harsh treatments. If only life was given a little more value......makes me wonder...we always take it for granted...

As you said, breed them per demand...here's an example of how a well-known human did it to his daughter...
http://www.ytedk.com/lobotomy.htm

Joe kennedy arranged for his oldest daughter to have a prefontal lobotomy , which left her permanently disabled,---all for his political ambitions...

BrainWaves said...

Right when I was upset of the dog's state, I read Survivor's Kennedy blog and it made me more upset.

We humans always find new lows.

Suresh Sankaralingam said...

I just dont know what to say...

Survivor said...

On a different note, when I was in India last month, I was distressed by the increase in the number of stray dogs.My niece got bitten by one too. Every street has atleast five of them , and I was literally scared to go out for a walk. For the increase in dogs, we need to thank Menaka Gandhi...So, what do you do in such situations ?

Manohar said...

The stress in India has always been to buy 'breed dogs'. I had always thought if more people adopt the native varieties- we solve two birds with one stone. To give motivation, the native dogs (in india) are extremely smart and are by nature very friendly. For the amount of people who pay to buy exotic breed- one only needs a smaller percentage to get the street dogs off the streets.

For the 'US'- I would think the problem is smaller/simpler. The humane society just has to advertise more (yes it means more $$$, but that can be solved if enuff animal lovers sponsor it as a charity) that these dogs will go to the chamber- and I suppose more people wud adopt them.

Suresh Sankaralingam said...

@mano: "solve two birds with one stone"...or "kill two birds with one stone"... interesting quote for the situation...:)

Manohar said...

ooops! my bad-- didnt' realise I had misquoted :)

sdpal said...

Hmm.. killing two birds to save a dog!