By Dr. Steve Best -
[email protected]
My peaceful evening of reading was disturbed by a phone
call from an acquaintance who found some five-day-old kittens near a
trash dump in a parking lot. I implored her to take them immediately to
the animal emergency hospital. When she arrived, one was already dead,
the vet said the second was in such bad shape she should be euthanized,
and the third had a chance to live. I told the woman to bring the third
kitten to my house so I could try to save her.
For hours, throughout the long night, I kept her warm
and bottle-fed her as best I could. Her eyes were closed, and she was
black and white with tiny pink hands, feet, and ears. I thought she
might make it. But at 3:30 A.M. she started struggling for breath and
uttered heart-wrenching cries that became increasingly less frequent and
muted. I never felt so helpless. I wept as I held her quivering body in
my hands, knowing her life force was leaving her. She was stilled
forever.
I stare at her now in her box, before I go out to bury
her, as she lays wrapped in the towels that kept her warm for a short
time. I wonder what kind of life we might have shared, how many smiles
she would have brought me, and how she would have played in the tall
grass with the rest of my feline family.
This kitten was just one of the thousands of unwanted
and stray animals of El Paso. Last year, the city euthanized 22,000
abandoned, lost, and unwanted animals. We cannot stand idle while our
animal friends cower in fear in the corners of their cages before they
are killed and incinerated in assembly-line style. Like in many cities,
activists in El Paso have struggled hard to educate the community about
the need for spaying and neutering, for proper care and guardianship of
our beloved companion animals, to raise funds for improved animal
�shelters,� and to move toward a �no-kill� city policy as soon as
possible.
We all have a unique opportunity to educate the
community and help the suffering animals. National Homeless Animals� Day
is on Saturday, August 17th. Here in El Paso animal welfare and animal
rights groups are coming together to mark this event with a candlelight
vigil. We will create a chain of 22,000 paper circles to mark the tragic
death of each individual life snuffed out. I urge you to organize an
event in your own community, to have your city council officially mark
the day, to hold a candlelight vigil, to call the media, to publicize
the event well, and to encourage your local officials to attend. This is
an important occasion to educate the community not only pragmatically
about the particulars of animal care � from spaying and neutering to
adequate shade and water � but also philosophically. The most important
lesson we can convey is that animals have inherent value, that we are
partners with animals in the great journey of life and evolution, that
we are their guardians not �owners,� and that they are subjects of a
life and not human �property.� (seehttp://www.idausa.org/property.html).
For more information on National Homeless Animals� Day,
see:
http://www.isaronline.org/campaign_homelessday.htm.
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