 |
PatchWork
by Joyce Whitis |
The 18 year old boy from Mansfield, faced those who would punish his actions and shrugged his thin shoulders. "It's just a dog. I wish I would have gotten some cameras when I got shot", he said.
The story of the teenager who poured gasoline on the back of a puppy and then set fire to her with a cigarette lighter, has seared our minds with the cruelty toward an innocent, helpless animal. Yet, according to reports on the 10 o'clock news and in the Star Telegram, the young man is having a hard time in seeing anything wrong with what he did. In fact he wonders why there wasn't as much interest in his own recent stay in the hospital after a gang related shooting.
Well you know what, son. You've got an awful lot to get straight in your attitude toward life. You don't think you should serve time in jail. "Not for a dog," you said. There are those who agree with that. Here's exactly what some might think should be your punishment.
You should have a nightly dream in which gasoline is poured on your back and a dog sets you on fire. While you are running frantically around the yard, yelping and hobbling on your broken foot, (oh yes, you and your friend, did corner Zelda, the Doberman Rottweiler cross and throw rocks at her until you broke her paw), Zelda would be sitting in a lawn chair, watching your agony, even as you watched her.
The puppy which suffered burns over 30 percent of her body, would ofcourse receive no pleasure in revenge. You see, Lame Brain, dogs are just dogs so they don't have the afflictions that humans are saddled with. Dogs don't know how to bear a grudge and will crawl across the floor and lick the hand of the master who has just administered a beating. A dog will just know that it was his fault and he will want to be friends anyway.
Zelda will never feel the jealousy that you do because she got the spotlight while your own chosen lifestyle got you shot. You complain about nobody bringing cameras to film you in the hospital, maybe because you are not an innocent animal, incapable of sin. You are responsible for your actions and you chose to run with gangs. Those who choose gangs, live by gang rule, surely you can see this.
Zelda wasn't given a choice about who would control her, just like she wasn't given a choice about anything in her life. Dogs like her are bought and sold, given away or dumped beside the road, carried to the Animal Shelters of this world, or left on some busy street at the whelm of some human.
It's pretty scary, that someone of your age is already capable of such a vicious, senseless crime. Set a puppy on fire! "It's just a dog", you said. But she was ALIVE, dumb bell! She felt her flesh burning! She knew intense suffering. Now sit there and tell me that you did nothing wrong!
Animal abuse is not uncommon. Those who work in this field see it all too often and it takes many forms. Many times it is unintentional because of ignorance....devoted dogs left in the back of a pickup on a blistering hot day when the pads of the animal's feet are all but sticking to metal pickup bed.....tiny Poodles left in a car getting hotter by the second while her owners dine in an air-conditioned restaurant.....dogs on chains in the yard with the only alternative to the hot sun, a dog house that itself is an oven....the list of abuses is long and heartbreaking.
Then there are the intentional cruelties committed by those who are a little less than human and lacking in self confidence. These are the individuals we need to put away for the safely of humanity. I believe that a person who will pour gasoline on the back of a puppy and set fire to it, will also commit serious crimes against humans. There is a correlation here that I have seen personally during several years of animal cruelty investigations.
"Just a dog", as if she were a stick or a rock or something without feeling. Last week my family and I buried a little chocolate Poodle that some folks would have said was, "just a dog". And yet, as we stood together beside the little grave that grandson, Michael dug for her in our private Pet Cemetery, each family member spoke tearfully of the cheerful little dog that had enriched our lives for more than twelve years.
"Sophia always liked to catch mice at the shop, and she wouldn't stop until she got it."
"I liked the way she used to always bring me her toys to throw ."
"She and Boo Kitty would curl up with me and make me feel better when I was sad."
"She changed the way I always thought about Poodles."
Nobody standing at the gravesite where Sophia was laid to rest, was thinking of her as "just a dog". We were all remembering the joy she brought into our lives, the unselfishness with which she took on the world and the loyalty she showed to her family and friends.
Angelo Allums, you would indeed be a rich man if you had taken the time to better know such a dog!