Everyone,

I thought this week I was just adopting a cat. Little did I know I
was going to be confronted with the good, the bad, and the ugly of a
poorly understood crisis in our country — the overpopulation of
companion animals. It’s not just Dixie that’s been gnawing at me,
but perhaps every cat I saw at the Bay Area ASPC on Monday has now
been executed by lethal injection…excuse me, “put down.” Same
thing with the cats I saw at the Galveston County Animal Shelter.

I think if I worked or volunteered at one of those placed every time
I brought in a stray, abandoned, or surrendered pet I’d be
saying “Dead cat walking” or “Dead dog walking” on the way to the
cattery or the kennel. I’m sure everybody else there would hate me
because it reminds them of a grim reality that they’ve rationalized
away…there are just so many more companion animals that homes for
them that they have to “disposed of.”

The ASPCA estimates that it euthanizes 9 million pets every year.
All this week I’ve been comparing it to the 6 million Jews and 6
million other people that didn’t belong to the “master race” that
died over the span of three or four years in the Holocaust or the 5
million abortions done in this country every year. I don’t want to
trivialize the pain and suffering the Nazis caused the Jewish people
or debate reproductive politics here, and I do realize killing a
human is orders of magnitude more sever than killing a cat or dog.
It’s just that the numbers are staggering, and they are not numbers,
they are lives – individuals with unique personalities.

When I was looking for more No-Kill adoption programs in the Houston
area this week I got another reason to despise PETA — they euthanize
cats, dogs and rabbits by the thousands
(http://www.nokillnow.com/PETAIngridNewkirkResign.htm). I guess they
are for the ethical treatment of all animals *except* the animals
most humans want ethically treated the most! It’s wrong to eat meat,
it’s wrong to do medical tests on animals, but it’s perfectly okay to
systematically exterminate pets. The web site lists many stories and
statistics, but here is the one that bothered me the most:

A former PETA employee told a reporter: “a teary-eyed man showed up
at PETA headquarters one day with his beloved pet rabbit. The man had
grown old and sick and was no longer able to care properly for his
friend. He supplied a cage, bed, toys, and even vet records for this
pet. He was assured by PETA workers that they would take “good care”
of his rabbit and find him a home. The man left distraught but no
doubt believing that his friend would be able to live out the rest of
his life in a loving, compassionate home…PETA workers carried him
to the ‘death house’ immediately and ended his life!” The employee
said there are many similar examples.
(http://www.nokillnow.com/PETAPart1HorribleSecrets.htm)

How could anyone be so callous? (More Holocaust imagery, especially
from the movie “Schindler’s List,” comes to mind.)

Back when I was a tree-hugging hippie in junior high I was also a big
proponent of preventing cruelty to animals. I bought a book
published by the ASPCA similar to “50 Simple Things Kids Can Do To
Save the Earth.” I liked the mission of the ASPCA — the American
Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Maybe some people would
say euthanizing unwanted pets is humane, but to me that sounds like
saying it’s more humane to execute people in prison after they’ve
been there ten years than let the serve out the full length of their
sentence.

I apologize for all of this, and there may be some people who
disagree with me about euthanizing unwanted pets or abortion (again,
I don’t want to get in a political debate right now). Right now I’m
at the same state of emotional and mental overload like I was the
first week I went over from the “pro-choice” side of the abortion
debate to the “pro-life” side. Now I’m an active supporter of pro-
life organizations like the Houston Coalition for Life, the American
Life League and the American Center of Law and Justice. Maybe a few
months from now I’ll be actively involved in “no kill” animal
adoption programs as well.

Joel