words fail me

A CNN report I just finished watching told the tale of how many American military personnel are left with no choice but to have their pets executed (under the auspices of "being humane") in order to comply with their orders to deploy to Iraq, which often give them only a week or so to prepare for departure, and leave them unable to arrange for longterm care for their beloved furry family members.


Imagine having to decide to take your trusting animal friends off to be killed at your own request in order to fight and possibly die for your country.


I can't even begin to explain to what extent the utter inhumanity of this sickens me. The wealthiest country in the world forcing those, who are in many ways demonstrably the most patriotic citizens of our nation for putting their lives on the line for the ideals this country was founded upon, to murder the living creatures they have committed themselves to being responsible for simply because they are inconvenient.



But it's tainted dog food that gets the headlines.



Go to www.netpets.org if you can help. Even with my herd, I'm going to see if there is any way I can. Please help, even if it is just contributing money to this most honorable of causes.



UPDATE:

I just saw the report again on CNN, and everybody kept saying that these military people had to have their pets "put to sleep" before they left for war.

No, they didn't.

They had to have their pets executed.



When you have an animal "put to sleep" it is a sanitary way of saying that an animal is so incredibly sick or injured or in pain that a quick and intentional death is the only way of avoiding inflicting further suffering upon it. It is also the only way to deal with animals that have proven themselves to be violent.

When you take a perfectly innocent, healthy, and happy house pet somewhere and have it put down because it is inconvenient, in my book that is murder and I would like to see it made prosecuteable as a felony. Call me crazy, but I don't find any difficulty in my position. The inability to speak or make tools does not make these creatures any less self-aware or worthy of living. When people decide to accept an animal into their life, they should understand it to be the same kind of commitment as bringing another human into their life. Once you accept the responsibility, it is yours until the end.

In this particular circumstance, the owners of these animals are given no choice in the matter if they are unable to place them in homes or boarding with friends or family and it horrifies me that our country finds that an acceptable practice. Our government has no right to expect that kind of sacrifice from our military people and with the trillion dollars spent on ruining Iraq, a few hundred million to find some ways of handling this situation better would not even be noticed. It would not be difficult to set up a foster-parent-for-pets program to "support the troops" and it would be an ennobling action on the part of our country.



Too bad pets aren't frozen embryoes...