Just a quick note to say that I can’t look at pictures of animal abuse anymore. They seem to be frequently thrust into my face on Facebook. Am I wrong in trying to ignore these photographs? Am I wrong in trying to put them out of my mind? Am I brushing them under the carpet to try and forget about them? I don’t know but I do know that I can’t look at them any more because they are too disturbing and upsetting and in the end it just comes down to that. You can put aside all the fancy arguments; at the end of the day it’s about me and what I can and cannot deal with. They remain lodged in the mind like a toxic substance.
It seems that Facebook thinks that I need to look at these photographs. I don’t now how Facebook works in terms of what it presents to me but it has got it wrong.
Do you feel the same way about horrible pictures of animal abuse? There really are some horror images out there. One difficulty that I have with these horror photographs of abused animals is that I feel helpless. I feel that I cannot do much about it. Perhaps I can do a bit about it and perhaps we should all do a bit so that it adds up to a lot. However, I feel I don’t have the strength in me anymore to do that.
In addition, I really sense that nobody cares. That’s wrong. People do care. Some people care a lot. A lot of people care but do we care enough to force change? How do we stop somebody abusing a donkey by overworking the animal in Asia? How do we stop somebody in China beating a dog to death on the street; treating the dog as some sort of inanimate unfeeling object?
It is a mightily difficult task to make a difference; to force change. Even the best of us and even the most committed of us including people in high places have achieved almost nothing to stop animal abuse in the poorer countries. Somebody will say why bother stopping it if the people are suffering and struggling to survive; surely we should focus on their welfare first?
I don’t believe in that. I believe we can do both at the same time. I believe we can stop animal abuse and improve the welfare of people simultaneously. As far as I’m concerned, there is still an insufficient amount of concern for animal welfare in all countries but particularly in those countries where people are poorer and without being critical of these people where people are uneducated. It takes education to make people aware of the needs and feelings of sentiment beings such as work animals. A lot of people simply have no sensibilities towards animals.
You can go back to industrialise countries like America and the UK to an era when even veterinarians were unsure that animals felt pain. So you can see that if a poor country is in effect 100 or more years behind in respect of development in comparison to industrialise countries in the West then it will be a long time before many people in those countries have refined sensibilities towards the companion and work animal.
Some people in the West enjoy animal abuse. It is not uncommon. It is an extension of sport hunting in my view. Think of people showing off animal abuse videos on FB and the like. Kids boasting of it. The internet works both ways: a force against animal abuse/cruelty and a showcase for it by perverted and psychologically damaged but dangerous people.
The more a person cares about animal welfare, the more it hurst to look at horror animal abuse photos. So, the best people are the most likely to shut them out for their own wellbeing.
Am I wrong? I could be. Tell me I am wrong.
I absolutely agree with that! Anyone who has even a thimbleful of compassion feels something when they see those images. The way Jackson Galaxy informs and teaches people about cats is much healthier than gory images and I think because of it the message reaches a wider audience. You never stop fighting – you just fight in another way that I think is more effective.
Yes we all need to take care of ourselves to have the strength to battle on, the animals need us.
Thank you for getting rid of Woody’s rantings Michael, I’m only sorry you had to read his rubbish on your brilliantly written article about how we who care about animals, all feel. He is an insensitive idiotic moron who should do us all a favour and go and jump off a high cliff onto rocks!
Sorry Woody but your comment is too unpleasant and insensitive to even publish in part (Michael)
I am pleased you feel the same way. We need to take care of ourselves and ugly pictures of animal abuse hurt us.
I agree we need to surround ourselves with calm and beauty and that comes from nature for me. I love the sounds of nature and the calm it brings. It is the best “drug”. By contrast the worst kind of human behavior in abusing animals is so ugly. It is the opposite to the beauty of nature.
I wonder like you whether we should fight animal abuse. Most of the world is more interested in cat celebrity. They don’t want to face reality.