Those two precious lives are an 8-month-old pit bull mix and an 8-year-old labrador mix at the Fulton County Shelter in Atlanta, Georgia. The image has gone viral, moving many people to tears, wanting those two to be adopted together, which of course they should be.
Puppy mills alone are far too deplorable for human beings to accept them, yet on they go. They keep dogs in absolutely horrifying conditions, adding continually to dog overpopulation, while dogs like those two in Atlanta are killed daily for being “surplus.”
Dogs are quite magnificent animals when allowed to be their true selves by being in proper life situations with good people, or conversely when forced to fend for themselves on the mean streets with only their wits and their pack members helping them survive. Little displaced wolves doing their utmost to survive in the chaos of human civilization. What a terrible thing we’ve done to them, despite all those pampered “pets” wearing clothes and going to daycare and all the rest of our posing as people who love them.
True love in action…
I’ve seen stunningly compassionate and intelligent behavior in dogs, genuine empathy and love for their friends and family whether humans, other dogs, or cats and other species…totally unselfish acts. Once a pack of feral strays were running a nearby neighborhood and one became trapped in a backyard he couldn’t scale the wall of to get out to continue traveling with the rest of his group of six or so. So one female stayed and watched over him, tried to encourage him to jump, and curled up with him at night to keep him warm…this was for one night, since my brother put up a ramp for him to climb out on in the morning. I’ll never forget him looking back at us sadly, thoughtfully, as if to say, “Thank-you, I’d like to stay but I cannot trust humans anymore,” and off the two went to join up with the others. I called a no-kill operation to come and try to rescue them, but they never were found again. I sincerely hope they all had good outcomes, but know the reality of this world, so it’s only a very sad memory from the 1990s…wish I could have caught and taken in all six and given them heavenly lives. There’ve been many such sad memories…forever regretted, heartbreaking.
These amazing animals are treated as vermin by many people, despite the fact that they’re only out there due to being failed by their human families, so all they have are each other in this extremely dangerous world of ours where any sort of person can happen upon them, from rescuers to absolute monsters who will deal them the very worst of fates. So from the loss of their homes to such terrible uncertainties, stray dogs learn to want nothing more to do with us except for whatever food they can garner from us, so they’ll run and hide from everyone, often putting themselves in danger in car traffic.
They often remain so “free”…and hungry and thirsty…until rounded up by animal control, heartlessly, often treating them as pests to be disposed of. Then there are all those hit by cars or otherwise maimed, crippled, dying, or dead out there, ignored by passers by…or worse. All this, among our great civilization of “pet” lovers.
Every one of my family’s dogs for the past 30 years or so has been such a street rescue or other “unwanted” one, and they’re the most awesome animals anyone could have the honor to have as part of our lives, even if they have some problems. They become loved family members, or if not kept, they’re at least never forgotten.
Now, how is it that puppy mills are allowed to exist?
With all this going on, and under any other circumstances, it is truly criminal that any dog breeders exist out there, whether puppy mills or “responsible” ones. Animal shelters kill millions of “surplus” animals like those two in that heart-wrenching photo daily, so what sort of heartless person would bring another puppy into this situation deliberately, and especially to profit financially off such a deplorable act, even further, to literally torture, by confinement and worse, the animals they use as cash machines?
We as a species have got to thoroughly reject the animal breeders among us. How this will be accomplished, I’m not sure, but it has to be. I’ve tried to do my part by always rescuing dogs, never letting them reproduce, by being vegan, and whatever else I can think of, and by spreading the word to anyone who’ll listen… as most of us animal lovers do. But the masses seem largely not to care, don’t want to look, have social-life and other selfish concerns to occupy their minds. We need some real solutions to this mess if the absolutely horrible aspects of humanity are ever to be turned around.
Step one would be for most to realize: LIFE is never for sale…
Human beings who behave as if other lives are to be bought, sold, used, and disposed of are only selling their own bleak souls for virtually nothing. Every one of those animals…including those used as “food,” etc. …remain pure and innocent and worthy of respect, love and happiness, including those deemed commodities.
It is long past time to put and end to these subhuman practices, by first realizing that non-humans’ experiences are on a par with yours, and that you no longer want to be part of bringing them into life and then making those lives and deaths the worst sorts of hell. Make that commitment and act on those convictions every single day for the rest of your life, to the best of your abilities. Don’t accept the unacceptable, see through the lies, protest, boycott, speak up.
We can all recite, “Adopt don’t shop,” “Spay/neuter your animals,” and whatever else, to the “choir” for eternity, while ignoring the huge roots of problems; but until our species changes its entire view of animals, things will never change enough to make us worthy of sharing this planet with them, with our being humans, the supposedly loving, moral, intelligent species.
We’ve got to get things right, at last, and starting now. And you (each of us) are step one, making for billions of great steps forward to this long-awaited goal.
Blame It on Love 
