Letter from Lexie About Dealing with the Horrors of Animal Cruelty - 6 Dec 2008
Letters From All-Creatures.org and The Mary T. and Frank L. Hoffman Family Foundation

Letter from Lexie About Dealing with the Horrors of Animal Cruelty - 6 Dec 2008

Oh my God. I am so just devastated from seeing this stuff on your site. For a college course I'm taking, I am doing a report on rendering plants and the dark truths behind them.

I am a huge animal person. In fact, I hate people. after seeing the gallery on The Dog. I am removing the tat from my lower back that is a Chinese caricature that means friendship. I know you don't promote any racial reactions, but I cannot help it because I can't stand what those people are doing over there. I won't be able to look at another one ever the same again. and that's my right as an American and as a human being. So don't take that like it is something you made me think. It is solely my decision. just want to clarify that.

Anyway, I am a vegan but have recently discovered that as much as I am committed to this cause, now I've learned that animal byproducts are in things I NEVER knew before I made this lifestyle change two years ago. Now I am feeling just helpless and infuriated more and more about the amount of crap we are not informed about anymore.

We have MTV and BET and NBA and NFL and CNN and all the media anyone could ever have and nowhere, and I mean nowhere, does anyone present missions like yours. As a race of beings, humans are supposed to be the most advanced and the most intelligent, but this doesn't say a thing for our responsibilities to be just as advanced and developed spiritually and ethically.

I just don't understand how a person can make a conscious decision to inflict such gruesome, torturous, and appalling abuse on another little creature. They are friggin' defenseless and innocent and so pure and so good.....Why do people do these things? I get so sick from the truths that people ignore. without this being taken seriously. I honestly contemplate suicide sometimes everyday just to stop feeling the feelings and desperation I feel constantly about the world in which we live in.

Honest to God, it all went straight down and down fast for me when I stumbled upon some videos on PETA.org and ever since then, I have hated the world and the filth that inhabits it (humans of course). Since then, I have isolated myself from almost everyone. I can't even go to some of my friends' houses because someone ALWAYS has a dog or two and they aren't being taken care of...and then I confront the owners, questioning them, interrogating them. I usually end up going to a local pet store and purchasing items for the animals...food, litter boxes, beds, treats, toys, flea treatment....and I groom them and I take them for walks and I clean their bowls and fill them back up....I lay with them and hold them and pet them and just love them......only to know that I have to leave them.

Some of these animals I have had taken away from their owners, a couple I have pressed charges against and had arrested. Some of the animals I take in until I can find them good homes. Others I come back and visit weekly, but I am so overwhelmed because it is the tiniest of impact that I can really make on such a huge problem. This is an epidemic of cruelty and lack of compassion that I don't foresee ever changing because it just keeps getting worse.

The population of the world is only expanding and the behaviors are spreading like wildfire. I just pray and pray every day for all the animals in this world who are suffering or will suffer and I pray that God brings something catastrophic to this world to change us for good...something that would just take all the pain and suffering away forever. And let the animals live here in peace and the way God intended them to be.

Not even the law protects them. And it never will in my opinion because with something like the Michael Vick case, people honestly think that it makes no sense to cry over some dogs who were murdered so viciously and forced to live so horribly because they are just dogs, and why should we care when we have starving families and disease stricken countries? But to those issues, we are the only ones to blame. Those countries must blame their governments or lack thereof. These animals have done nothing more than be born and this is their fate.

I'm sorry to have gone on and on like this. Sometimes I just can't control myself. I wish everyone was as moved and affected by this tragedy as me and the few others that share what I feel. I appreciate your time and understanding.

Thank you for continuing to bring awareness to the few that care enough to confront the dark truths of our existence.

God please free them from all our sin and keep them by your side in heaven, safe from pain and free from suffering.

Amen

Reply from Frank and Mary Hoffman

Dear Lexie:

Thank you very much for expressing your feelings in such an open way; we have been moved to the depths of our souls. You are a very powerful witness, even if you don't realize it every day.

We know the pain and frustration you are feeling, because we feel the same way, We also believe that the animal abusers would like nothing better than to have us give up and die, so that there would be no one left to stand up against them and defend the animals. The animals need you to keep up the good work you are doing.

We have a veg-Christian email discussion list where you could share your thoughts with like-minded people, and we are starting Christian animal ministries all around the world. We also have a weekly newsletter. If you'd like to be part of any of these please let us know.

In the Love of the Lord,

Frank and Mary

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