Animal Cruelty

 

Okay, first things first. I am not going to put graphic images on this page. You know what animal cruelty is and what it looks like. What I will have on here is pro-active ways to deal with animal cruelty, including letters I have written myself. The letters are split up into sections, with many introductions, bodies, and conclusions where you can choose the most appropriate letter for you and the specific case. I am still working on this and it should be up in a few days. The reason for this is that I am trying to make it possible for each one of us to have a different letter, at least that is not verbatim the same letter that a judge just read. Form letters, as they are called, have less of an impact as letters appearing to be written by the person.

Also, I will talk about ways of coping with the knowledge of animal cruelty and what you can do to help yourself.

If you have any ideas on what you would like to see here, please let me know through the comment form on the contact me page.

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My Personal Experience with Animal Cruelty

My cat, Gaby was outside unattended and was stolen from our yard. Three days later, after searching everywhere I could think of and putting up fliers, I heard a faint meow as I walked up the stairs to my apartment. Someone had put her in a storage cabinet under the stairs near the door to my apartment and put a padlock on it, which they kept unlocked for some reason. As I opened the cabinet, I saw blood on the inside of the door, which I assumed was from Gaby trying to escape. I am not sure how long she was in there because I checked that cabinet the first day and she was not in there. She liked to hide in the cabinet but it was usually closed and I didn't think she could get in. I never imagined someone could have put her in there to hide what they had done. I picked up her limp body and aside from the faint meow that I heard, her body showed no signs of life. I brought her up to my apartment, wrapped her in a towel and put her in the carrier and we rushed to the emergency vet. The vet worked on her for a few hours and finally emerged from the back room. She was alive but in very bad shape. I asked the vet what he thought happened to her and his response changed my life forever. The vet said, it appears that she was being used as a bait animal for dog fighting. He explained to me that people use small dogs and cats to train their dogs to fight and kill other animals. Gaby was very sick for about 2-3 weeks. I had to give her medicine, a high energy food gel and water, through a syringe for 2 weeks. She was unable to move or get to the litter box for about 2 weeks. She was shaved over almost half her body due to the wounds. She needed stitches and as a result of the force of the repeated attacks, her sternum, or breastbone was permanently dislocated. I could never prove who did this to her but I am almost certain it was the neighbors living below me. What happened to Gaby happens each day, in wealthy and poor neighborhoods, by men, women and children of all races and ethnicities, sometimes, as in my case, in our own backyards. My cat, Gaby, was a victim of intentional animal cruelty.