Stupid, Dumb, and Ignorant...

From Jim: Was thinking about our animal control officers this morning. They have a really difficult job. They're asked to enforce the laws which pertain to the animals people keep. People come in a lot of flavors. Some that law enforcement personnel see often are 1-stupid, 2-dumb, and 3-ignorant. The first two are generally the most troublesome. Stupid folks willfully do the wrong things and won't try to fix it. Dumb people don't have the mental capacity to do better and can't learn how to fix it. Ignorant people, ah yes, ignorant people just don't know any better. If they're just plain ignorant, not stupid or dumb and ignorant, then there's hope! They can be enlightened and taught and made to be OK. When I was a cop, I was always delighted when I found an ignorant person that could be helped. Seems like lots of folks that own animals are of the stupid, or dumb, or ignorant classifications. And why not? There's just a whole big bunch of stupid, dumb, and ignorant people. Then, of course, you have to layer on the good/evil index. Think of the permutations!: Evil-stupid; Good-dumb; Ignorant-evil; Stupid-good, and so on... So back to AC officers. They get to sort through the maze of ill-doers that have animals and try to take care of the critters, use an intervention that will work, and enforce the law. They also get to deal with strays, wild critters that are a health risk-i.e. rabies, predation of domestic stock, and disputes between folks over animals that are pesky or disorderly. They also keep the license thing straight for pets. People get weird and emotional when it comes to their pets.(maybe even more so than with kids) The dynamics that emerge in family disputes certainly exist and may even be more amplified. Fido or Flicca or Fluffy is not only "property", it's family, by golly! Just because they're starved, abused, beaten, sick, frozen, fill-in-the-blank, doesn't mean Joe petowner or Jane, his significant other, won't fight to the death to protect them from the jackbooted thugs that look out for animals' welfare. The "you can't tell me what to do with my own pet" anthem can be heard playing in the background! If Joe and/or Jane are of the evil-stupid-my property/family school of human behavior, a good time is sure to be had by all. Next time you see "the Dogcatcher" give them some well earned praise. These are really hardworking, good folks who have a very difficult job. Our Butte County AC officers are among the best I've ever seen.

The Really Hard Question: Euthanize healthy horses?

From Jim: Most of us in the rescue/sanctuary arena will stipulate that there are just too many horses. This is the result of irresponsible ownership and breeding practices. A few horses are un-homed because of the economy, but most "unwanted" horses are the direct result of bad behavior by so-called horse people. OK, that is what it is. Our stupid lawmakers couldn't address that issue on their best day with a million tries. Until the horse industry decides to police itself in an effective way, 10s and 10s of thousands of horses won't have a place to call home. The most cynical of our kind look to horse slaughter as a solution. Let's inflict the maximum pain and suffering on the innocent animals as a just response to the really crappy behavior of our kind. What the Hell? It's a lot like Swift's modest proposal. We'll just eat our over-population. Slaughtering and consuming pets is just flat out wrong. No economic argument in the world can justify immoral behavior. The Nazis sure tried it and we all know how that worked out. Oh, and for those that say animals aren't people, I agree. They're even more entitled to our protection and stewardship. So, that brings us to the question of euthanizing perfectly healthy animals because we can't afford to feed and keep them. Of course, it's our choice to not be able to afford them. We have other stuff to spend our treasure on besides living things and it would be wrong to expect the irresponsible owners to have to carry their part of the load-not capitalistic enough. Remember, the vast majority of horses are here because someone decided to breed them. They are not feral creatures. Again, that is what it is. I will accept that euthanasia is a far better option than slaughter, which in my mind isn't even an option. The painless end of life for a horse beats the heck out of starvation and neglect. There's an economy to euthanasia which most can understand and some can even get OK with the morality of it. I suppose ethicists and the like can even come up with a protocol that smacks of fairness. That doesn't exactly soften the price that those of us who have to carry it out feel and pay. We ask for donations and financial assistance every way we can think of. We volunteer to do the work. In the end, the irresponsibles overwhelm us. The actions of the foolish, greedy and misguided so-called horse people are so lasting and costly that we can't keep up. If this is how it's going to be from now on, I supposed that euthanasianists will be in high demand and the rendering plants will have plenty to do. That's really a shame for the critters.

Stupid Selfish People...

From Jim: I am, of course, referring to politicians. The longer they're in office and the more seniority they accrue, the more they become isolated and ego-centered. Makes me sick! Our system-pork for my district-lobbyists-special interests-and so on drives us ever onward toward a catastrophic breakdown. Our republic has become schismatic. There is literally no middle ground, no dialogue, not a hint of compromise or accommodation. Only rancor and dyspeptic arguing, partisanship and divisiveness. The authors of the Federalist papers, our founding fathers, never ever envisioned this level of intransigence. The tone of the political discourse is now equivalent to that which occurred just prior to our civil war. A Republican wingnut called for the assassination of the president of the nation. The right wing media-Limbaugh and Fox news, etc. are as seditious as it gets. The so-called speaker of the house can't get anything done-With His Own Party! What the hell? I listen to the guy at the hardware store or in occasional social settings and the I'm overwhelmed by the ignorance of historical fact, the pervasiveness of demagoguery, the complete lack of sweet reason. Nihilism is the tone that comes through loud and clear. Let's just let the thing crash and burn because it's beyond fixing. A position like that is hard to engage in a meaningful way. So many of our country's issues are now wedge issues-sum zero contests-ideological hills to die on. Pledges and oaths are taken to battle to the bitter end, no matter what the cost or consequences. If the nation fails, so be it! Better dead than the way it is or can ever be. "Those" other guys are pure evil-the Antichrist, "They" are not of the body! History is replete with examples of where this leads. The notion that somehow it will turn out OK, because we're America is naive and dangerous. The risks are very real and the outcome may be something nightmarish beyond the ditto-heads' imagination. Can you say "Brave New World"? The "Tea Party" can't even get their historical namesake's facts right. Revisionism is the name of the game. "Well, If it wasn't that way, It should have been"! Huh? What do you do with that kind of moronic babble? Check out the Republican Party's candidates. Wow, I am so unimpressed. Not that our current "leader" has shown me much. The next election should be a peach.