Animal abuse is far more prevalent than the vast majority of people realize. Many people who consider themselves worthy and kindly pet owners are guilty of being unknowing animal abusers. This is because they are callously oblivious to the obvious fact that animals are living and sentient beings with feelings and needs – like us. Keeping a bird caged or a snake in the bathtub in unnatural isolation is animal abuse, however well fed and otherwise pampered they may be. Recently, I saw a woman walking along 4th Avenue with a tiny dog on a leash. She was obviously in a hurry and was walking fast. Her poor little dog wanted to sniff and explore and tried to do so once or twice. Each time it stopped to do so, the woman brutally jerked the leash and just dragged it forward. Once it dared to hoist its (his) leg to pee and was abruptly jerked forward on three legs. The woman at no time looked back to see the state of her little pet. It seemed so obvious to me that to this self-absorbed and callous woman her little dog was but an extension of her will; that the poor creature had a separate existence worthy of dignity would, I’m sure, have been an alien thought to her.

The problem is so great and prevalent that it can only be solved by a vast shifting of the ethical base of our entire civilization.

A daunting task, indeed!

Kenneth Durrer
Vancouver