We Can All Do Better
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This makes me so sad.
I feel like screaming at the top of my lungs, “We’re on the same team!” and “The animals don’t need our grudges, our vitriol, our egos; they need practical solutions NOW.”
Nathan Winograd wrote:
“I’ve never stomped, electrocuted, hung, shot, drowned, or strangled dogs, nor have I watched them tear each other to shreds and laughed. But Michael Vick did, and he’d still be doing it to this very day had he not been caught.”
Me neither. That doesn’t make me a saint. It makes me a normal person.
We have a choice in how to react to Vick now that he’s stopped hurting dogs. We can hold a grudge, carry anger and hate, and funnel our energy into an issue that’s already been resolved or we can forgive, show and teach kindness, and funnel our energy into other issues where animals are still dying.
Winograd’s heart is in the right place. He wants to help shelter animals. But he tries to do it by attacking the HSUS president for forgiving Michael Vick:
“Pacelle has long been an apologist and enabler of shelter killing.”
OK, so this may be true. Pacelle hasn’t come around on the euthanasia issue. The HSUS and PETA aren’t dedicated to saving lives through practical means, they’re dedicated to promoting their version of animal rights, which sadly includes a whole lot of collateral damage.
However, Pacelle’s previous statements against no-kill have got nothing to do with his choice to forgive Micheal Vick. Those are separate issues. You’d think a guy who wrote a book titled, Redemption, would have more understanding for forgiveness.
You might also think that a guy who has dedicated his life to saving animals’ lives might better interpret Pacelle’s claim that:
“In a civil society, there must be accountability for grievous actions. But there also must be an embrace of people who are willing and ready to change – even in tough cases, like Michael Vick. We are all sinners when it comes to animals, and we can all do better.” [emphasis added]
Because, guess what? Nonvegan dog-rescuers aren’t any better than euthanasia-supporting animal advocates. They’re all hypocrites! The Nonvegan dog-rescuers save the lives of dogs yet steal the lives of pigs, cows, chickens…
Consider, Winograd’s own statement with just a few words changed:
I’ve never stomped, electrocuted, hung, shot, drowned, or strangled pigs, nor have I paid someone else to. But every bacon-eating American has.
Just change the species and Winograd’s statement is no longer true. He used to eat animals.
We are all sinners and hypocrites when it comes to animals. We can all do better.
I appreciate the comment. I thought this was a good editorial, that Pacelle was right in saying that this is how we want these stories to end, with the criminal vowing to change and opening his eyes to a different way of thinking. Sure, I’m cynical and I wonder if Vick is just trying to improve his public image, but I wholeheartedly believe that kindness to humans is just as important as kindness to animals. They’re the same thing.
.-= warrior two´s last blog ..Cal Poly quiets Michael Pollan =-.
Wow, I re-read my post and found a ton of typos. That’s what I get for writing quickly. I’ve fixed them now. Sorry to anyone who read this prior to edits.
All of the back yard breeders, puppy mills, anti-PETA/anti-HSUS folks LOVE Nathan Winograd. They always quote him and defer to him. I don’t know why. It’s a real head scratcher.
Yes, that’s it. We can all do better, and the striving to do better never should end. Never. What a different world we would live in if we forgave ourselves and each other, and helped and encouraged each other in the getting better.
I like this quote from Samuel Johnson:
“Nothing is more unjust, however common, than to charge with hypocrisy him that expresses zeal for those virtues which he neglects to practise; since he may be sincerely convinced of the advantages of conquering his passions, without having yet obtained the victory, as a man may be confident of the advantages of a voyage, or a journey, without having courage or industry to undertake it, and may honestly recommend to others, those attempts which he neglects himself.”
^ http://www.archive.org/stream/britishessayists16chal/britishessayists16chal_djvu.txt Rambler 14, P. 154. In Chalmers, Alexander: Full text of “The British essayists : with prefaces, historical and biographical”. Retrieved 2009-04-15.
The emphasis in my mind is on the “yet”. In this simple word is contained all my hope and faith in the potential of each person. It is this word I turn to when I’m angry, frustrated, impatient, intolerant and hopeless. It reminds me that I too a on a journey and have yet to reach my destination, that I have been forgiven much and can offer no less to my fellow human beings.
Thanks for posting yet another reminder.
Nice post!
Just had one thought. Where you write:
“The HSUS and PETA aren’t dedicated to saving lives through practical means, they’re dedicated to promoting their version of animal rights, which sadly includes a whole lot of collateral damage.”
I’d suggest that HSUS and PETA may be dedicated to reducing animal suffering, and euthenasia may be the choice they make if they have to choose between the possibility that a given animal may suffer in the future or die now and not suffer. It’s a bit of a supposition that I don’t agree with, but I do think putting it this way is closer to their motivation.
Otherwise, really great post. Very well put.
.-= Glenn´s last blog ..Back to School! =-.