Fighting Animal Abuse In Your Neighborhood November 4, 2008

Posted by Rachel-O | Permalink | Comments ( 7 ) | TrackBack

As the winter begins here in Norfolk, Virginia, I'm bracing myself for another season with PETA's Community Animal Project (CAP), a program in our Cruelty Investigations Department. This is where PETA staffers volunteer their weekends to deliver straw and sturdy doghouses to dogs kept outside in the colder months. As I think about how eager I am to start again, I think back to last fall and an entry I wrote in my own personal journal:

"This weekend I got the honor of working with PETA's Community Animal Project—or CAP, a program that offers free to low cost spaying and neutering services to low-income families, delivers straw in the winter, and food and shelter all throughout the year for dogs who live at the end of chains or confined to pens in North Carolina and Virginia.

For whatever reason, there is one dog from this weekend that I cannot stop thinking of. I cannot forget. He was a large German Shepherd/black lab mix. We saw him from the street. He was chained tightly to some worn down fencing next to a garage, in a small grassy area of a backyard. His house was a two-tone plastic dog crate, covered in dirt and mud. His living area was a pile of dirt and unraked leaves, and he was surrounded by his own waste on every side. There was no food or water in sight, except for a small plastic baggy filled with raw shrimp. He instantly got up to greet us, his large frame moving fast and his tail wagging. His eyes told stories we'll never understand, and you could tell inside them was hope that we would never leave. The neighbor said the house had been abandoned three years ago, and that whoever owned the house came to "feed" the dog daily. Still, this loving, feeling creature begged us to stay with him, and as we wrote down all of the information we could get, we got up and walked away. We loosened his collar, gave him food, water and straw, and left him behind. We must leave him behind because the law was on the side of misery. (Although when we do find animals like this, in trouble, our cruelty investigators follow up with every case).

Three days have passed now. My life has continued: I've come home, eaten, laughed, played, talked, gone to work, relaxed. It has been day and night, warm and cold.

Still outside, he lingers. In the same place, on the same chain. In the same dark alley way next to the same garage. Smelling the same wretched stench of feces and urine, laying in the same dead leaves as the previous months. His life will never change, for him, simply existing in those horrible conditions is life. From the look of his body and the way he acted, he once knew love, now he knows nothing but memory. Now he knows nothing but loneliness.

For those three nights since I met him, I've thought of him every time I close my eyes. When I'm tucked away in my warm bed, he is still out there. He is still out there in the cold, wet night. He is still waiting for someone to come along and pet him, he is still hoping that one day that love he once knew, will return.

We will return for him, but only to finally end his solace. To end his isolation. We cannot erase his months of betrayal, or his months of depression. We can only alleviate his suffering, not replace it with love. There's not enough love in the world to make up for the wrongs of human beings. If they could understand our language, what could our society ever say? Would we tell them that their lives mean nothing? That they're useless, worthless, nothing? That they deserved to fall asleep every night in the dampness of their own waste? Would we, as a society, tell them that yes, we think that's just fine?

If we truly had to answer for our actions, what would we say?

Two of the thousands of dogs that CAP sees every year.
Fortunately for us, our victims can't speak. Most of only fight for the ones who can, because it makes us feel less guilty. We turn our heads to those who can't because they're simply easier to forget."

So what happens when we can't forget?

Sometimes being in the animal rights movement can feel overwhelming, and that's just part of fighting for such an important cause. Millions of animals suffer every day, but for animals in your local neighborhood, and your local shelters - you can help directly. I spend every Sunday at the local animal shelter here in Virginia, and even though every day working for animals is rewarding, there's nothing quite like finding a new home for an animal who is just waiting for a second chance. Not every community is lucky enough to have a program like CAP, but every one has a shelter. You make all of the difference for animals in those shelters, so find one near you and change a life. Who doesn't love spending hours playing with dogs and cats? Especially ones that are especially grateful to be shown love. Sadly, dogs and cats are often overlooked by some people who believe they have it easier, when in a lot of cases, they have it just as bad. Every day working for PETA is rewarding, but it's always some of the hardest, most gut wrenching work that makes me realize why I fight for all animals.

Please, do every little bit that you can, because they have no other choice to make other than to simply wait.

Stay Loud

-Rachel

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