Cowards, Bullies and Victims Without a Voice

Let me first warn the reader that this article may be difficult to read and many may want to stop now. I have struggled with whether to publish the article, but as the title says, this is about getting justice for victims who, without all of us, have no voice.

What does it say about a society that fails to protect the least amongst us? What does it say about humans that there are those among us that victimize the kindest, the least inclined to fight back?

I subscribe to a website that one might think can only be for those who enjoy suffering, but I can not help myself. Pet-Abuse.com notifies you about cases of animal abuse; about the cowards who abuse; and the punishment meted out to those who abuse animals.

In a word, our society’s punishments for these crimes are just, well, sad.

Our pets wait for us to get home because they see us as a part of their pack – a part of their family. They do not hand this out casually; they award us this position because they are willing to trust and willing to love unconditionally. I have always been around animals – I will always be around my pets because no one else in my life (read into here: except my loving wife) will give me the sort of unconditional love and devotion that I get from my dogs and my cats.

A dog that is beaten will usually approach his or her owner with wagging tail and bright eyes. Even after repeated beatings, after repeated abuse, that dog will still continue to hope for the best from its owner – its family member.

My friends think I am a bit of a masochist that I read about abuse. My wife does not want to hear these tales – they hurt too much. I read them because someone should. People should know what their fellow humans are doing to pets they agreed to care for. Because that is the contract you agree to when you take an animal into your care. You promise to feed them, to water them, to care for them and to love them. And then you promise to allow them to leave this world, when it is time, with the dignity they deserve.

So, I encourage you to visit sites like Pet-Abuse.com; to get involved in your community and its treatment of animals; to write letters to judges who are going to sentence animal abusers. Ask judges and prosecutors to award the stiffest penalties allowed under the law. Write your legislators and ask for tougher laws for animal abusers.

Because I think that these “victims without a voice” should be heard and because if we continue to turn a blind eye to this suffering, nothing will improve, I apologize for offering you these recent real life glimpses, but they are simply a very small tip of a very large iceberg:

• Someone beat a dog and dumped it in a field in the community of Radisson Heights in the southeast. The dog was discovered Friday night, wrapped in a blanket barely alive with blunt force trauma to the head. It died shortly after officers arrived.
• A Butler County man allegedly beat his dog to death with a hammer and left him dying, chained to a tree.
• A dog was found in a field, beaten badly, hogtied with cord around its front and rear legs. Its muzzle was tightly tied with cord as well. Left to suffer and die.
• A man and his son were found digging a grave in their back yard. Beside them was a severely beaten dog, not dead, but nearly dead. The boy and his father had taken turns beating the dog with hammers.

Pretty tough to read? Pretty tough for these animals.

Get involved and become a part of the solution. For tips on letter writing, go to Pet-Abuse.com.

The people who abuse these victims are cowards, bullies, weak men; sadly, they are often also child molesters, spouse abusers, child abusers, and other low life criminals. More sadly, they are often not punished to the fullest extent of the law.

To give you a graphic idea of the problem, here is a current picture for just the abuse cases reported in Florida: