When I was a child, coming home after school, grandma told me my dog Terry was taken away by the dog pound employees. Upset doesn’t begin to describe what I felt. My best friend was taken away from me! Anyway, being raised somehow by The Littlest Hobo and Lassie on TV, there was little doubt in my mind that Terry would escape and come back to me.
I waited for Terry two years, and then I gave up hope.
Not so long ago I read in the newspaper that a young boy committed suicide because his beloved dog died. I remembered Terry, but I couldn’t understand the boy’s radical decision. Darn it, it was a dog! You can cry all that you want, most people would understand that!
But you don’t take your life because your dog died.
At the same time, another boy killed his dad… because his dad killed his dog. I could imagine the boy’s pain, but darn it, it was a dog, not a human life!
You don’t take a human life because of killing a dog.
I’m of course against animal cruelty. But bash me all the way if you want it, because for me the notion of considering animals as subjects of law with rights is an unspeakable affront to all the suffering humanity, that one that is starving to death in Africa and elsewhere, that one that is still being slaved for forced labor or sexual exploitation or that one that will be lapidated for “sinful” behavior.
In that perspective, animalism is an utter waste of time and resources, and a cowardly way to avoid an undoubtedly more difficult (and gruesome) fight for fellow humans. It’s easier and safer to stand up for bulls than for 2.000 extrajudicially executed human beings.
That said, I deeply regret soap opera actor Nick Santino’s decision to take his life with an overdose of pills after euthanizing his dog. But I can’t still understand or accept his suicide as a loving gesture. Darn it, it was a dog.
Santino, rest in peace, may God have mercy on your soul and hopefully there is a heaven for dogs, too.
But for me, we should try being more altruistic with our fellow humans first. It's the least that we can do. Then we can talk about animals.
