i'll take the flak.

sometimes i get flak for being a peta member.

"they're too extreme."
"their work is not as important because we're talking about animals, not humans."
"how badly do people really treat animals?"

but then i hear a story like this one and my commitment is reaffirmed.

a woman i bumped into this morning had a small female golden, same color as haley (a darker gold than most goldens) and so we began chatting. she said that she adopted the dog from a rescue organization about two months ago. the dog was found tied up to a light post on a very busy street and when they checked her in, she was so filthy that they thought she was a black dog.

the rescuer figured that someone had tied her up so that she would be safe from traffic, but in doing so, she nearly died because she couldn't get to water. who knows how long she had been tied up there to get to that level of dehydration. why didn't the person who tied her up just take her in?

they guessed that she had been wandering for a couple of months since she weighed only 26 pounds. she is a tad bit smaller than haley and haley weighs 65 pounds. there was no collar on her.

once the vet took a look at her, she said that they had bred the dog twice and it looked like they just let her go because of her severe case of hip dysplasia. they just let her go. in the street. in the city.

this dog, like most goldens, has the sweetest, most gentle face. how could someone let her go like that? and even if she didn't, it must take a truly heartless person just to let go like that.

and although her owner said she is afraid of other dogs, she greeted haley warmly and they even played for a bit. her owner said that even though she's well taken care of now, she eats ravenously at each feeding. almost like she's afraid that there won't be another chance.

as luck would have it, the woman who adopted her told her rescuer friend that she'd be interested in adopting a golden. that same day, she found sienna.

the owner says that sienna mostly lays down because of her dysplasia and that she probably doesn't have much longer to live. and the vet estimated that she's only between four- and six-years-old. normally, these dogs live up to 13 or 14.

it is because of stories like this and this that i support peta and all their (yes, sometimes wacky) activities in the promotion of ethical treatment of animals.

"peta believes that animals deserve the most basic rights—consideration of their own best interests regardless of whether they are useful to humans. like you, they are capable of suffering and have interests in leading their own lives; therefore, they are not ours to use—for food, clothing, entertainment, or experimentation, or for any other reason."

what to do if you see an abandoned dog.

photo credit: me.