Sunday, July 12, 2009

Animal Lovers



Yesterday, in downtown Baltimore, I saw a man walking a beautiful huge greyhound very similar to the one you see in the picture. I've never kept a pet and I never will. I believe that keeping an animal - especially one as big as this one - in a city apartment is incredibly cruel.

People who keep pets say they do this because they love animals. Their love for animals apparently motivates them to castrate their pets, take out ther nails, force them to live in a small enclosed space which they can only leave a couple of times a day for a brief walk (or, as happens with many cats, never), and lead a lifestyle that is completely unnatural to them.

I have no doubt that it must be nice to have a soft, cuddly toy that is alive, that loves you, that you can play with. But what these "animal lovers" forget is that these are live creatures. They are not toys. As humans, we are, of course, bigger and stronger, so there is nothing that would prevent us from modifying these poor animals to make them as convenient as possible. And this is horrible.
The poor greyhound I saw yesterday was straining on his leash, trying to run. The owner was struggling to restrain the animal and make it walk at a moderate pace that, yet again, would be more convenient to the owner. Of course, if anybody were to tell this man that he is torturing this unhappy creature, he would never believe it.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I will use this post as an opportunity to vent a little about my neighbour. I remembered that you once wrote about writing and reading in a busy, noisy environment, a coffee shop for instance. I also enjoy working in public spaces because the activity around is energizing. It is also anonymous. It keeps you busy. These days I am working home, because I cannot carry around all the documents I need to work. I placed all my books, paper stuff, laptop, dictionaries on my kitchen table, with music and coffee pot. But there is one noise that annoys me beyond belief: my neighbour's 4 dogs. They are not energizing at all.

These creatures bark all the time. If someone comes in, they bark, if the phone rings, they bark, it a fly flies, they bark. The make my life miserable. Anyways, the point is that my neighbour thinks she loves her pets, but the poor dogs are ALWAYS in her appartment. They never go out, unless they go barking and peeing on the porch, which is obviously annoying.

My neighbour once had two cats. She took the cat's claws off because she did not want them to ruin her pieces of furniture. The poor cats were unable to be normal cats: running and hunting was difficult for them. One cat was not clean and my neighbour decided to have it killed. The other cat died of a nervous breakdown I guess.

The point is that my neighbor's love for animal is unfair and egoistic. The cat is not clean so it has to be killed it. The dogs are not clean but it is all right. The cats cannot destroy the pieces of furniture but the puppies chew the walls and the kitchen table,an activity my neighbour deemed funny. Why is that? Simply because the dogs bring my neighbour something the cat did not, could not, bring. Dependency? Maybe. In any case, my neighbour's signs of affection for her pets can't be described as love.

The neighbour's dog are begging to go out and spend some energy running in the streets, but my neighbour genuinely thinks that they are happy in her tiny appartment. Fresh air on the proch, in her view, is enough for them. She does nt bother to walk them around.

I am now hearing these dogs barking, trapped in my neighbour's appartment, and I simultaneously think: they are bothering me and I pity them. Love for an animal sometimes implies sacrifice. I am thinking about denouncing my neighbour, but she would be heartbroken. I love her too much:)

Ol.

Clarissa said...

This is so horrible! It's sad that some people have this unhealthy understanding of love. Poor, poor animals! How can you put a creature down just because it's inconveniencing you? Horrible!

Anonymous said...

I love the way Blogers write and complain about things they know nothing about,
First off a Greyhound does fine in an appartment, and the fact that racing greyhounds are kept in small cages 20+ hours aday and are only let out to poopie and race. and the fact that if noone adopts these animals they will be destroyed.

It would do you good to learn about the things you are going to post about before you randomly and blindly b!tch about something.

you should in fact praise the people that adopt Greyhounds, these are sweet easy going and " lazy" dogs they love to just lay around and be near others.

you should complain about the dog racing industies that is where the abuse and lack of love is. youtube search greyhounds and you will have someting to write about.