Silver, a Young Dog, Dies Needlessly

He will forever be known to me as Silver. That is not his real name of course; I have dubbed him that solely based upon his solid-white fur. He was a two to three year old dog of medium build and of unkown pedigree.

I first became acquainted with him about three months ago when he bolted from his yard and ran across two lanes of bumper-to-bumper rush hour traffic to nip at my shins. During the weeks which followed this behavior was repeated on six or seven occasions -- and I only walk past his house once a week! Despite numerous brushes with death from speeding automobiles, Silver's guardians never once restrained him or even bothered to come down in order to get him out of the street. In fact, I never once set eyes upon them; sometimes I could hear them calling him from the doorway of their house but that was all. They certainly never did evince much concern about him either biting me or getting hit by a car. I strongly suspect that they rather savored the prospects; it served in a sadistic sort of way as blood sport bourgeoisie style.

From day one I knew exactly how this was all going to end but I felt powerless to prevent it. Prior dealings with the police, Humane Society, and animal protection groups on behalf of either injured or abused animals have proven to be a complete waste of both time and effort. For their part, the police routinely fob off animal- related matters to Animal Control which invariably immediately kills the sick or injured animal whereas both the Humane Society and other supposedly pro-animal groups have demonstrated a total lack of interest in such matters. The behavior of these groups is reminiscent of that of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) which goes to great lengths to defend scumbags (the Mafia, Rush Limbaugh, neo-Nazis, etc) whenever there is money and free publicity in it for them but will not lift one finger to redress police abuse directed against totally innocent citizens. Consequently, with no professional assistance available to me and with approaching Silver's owners being unlikely to have any positive effect, my hands were tied.

Two weeks ago the inevitable happened. Silver ran from his yard and out into the street but before he reached me he was struck by a red-colored, economy-size car. The driver, who never even braked, dragged him for a hundred feet before finally depositing his lifeless corpse on the blacktop at a red light. The motorist could have easily avoided hitting Silver but that was not part of the game plan; Silver was killed on purpose.

In southern New Jersey where I live I bury a lot of cats, rabbits, squirrels, and birds who are killed by motorists as well as an occasional dog or deer. None of these deaths are accidental; they are all premeditated vehicular executions. There is a sizable number of people in this predatory society who get an adrenaline rush out of running down defenseless animals. Much the same thing can be said for the five thousand pedestrians killed annually by motorists across the United States. In New Jersey, the worthless and corrupt law enforcement community steadfastly refuses to enforce the traffic laws; the police's sole contribution to pedestrian safety comes in the form of public service announcements aired over the radio urging pedestrians to stay out of the way of cars! Four-footed pedestrians do not even receive that token amount of consideration.

Now whenever I walk past Silver's former abode there is a little girl who stands at the curb accusing me with her eyes of having killed her dog. This is typical of how white middle-class Americans think and behave: the entire world is theirs to exploit and corrupt with impunity and sans regret. Like it or not, the sad, sickening truth of the matter is that little girl and her worthless parents killed Silver just as if they had placed a gun to his temple and pulled the trigger. The entire family should be jailed and barred from ever owning another pet, but neither of these things are going to happen. Moreover, I feel certain that the family will soon be getting a replacement for Silver -- no doubt to turn loose in the street.

Their murderous behavior reminds me of Bill Clinton's callous and irresponsible behavior toward his pets. He recently allowed his dog Buddy to get run down by a motorist outside his house in upstate New York. Buddy was the second of his dogs to be struck and killed by autos; he lost another one when he was governor of Arkansas. He also had his cat, Socks, declawed and he later gave her away when he left the White House. As Immanual Kant once said, "We can judge the heart of man by his treatment of animals."

Dogs must either be kept on leashes or confined to fenced-in yards. They should not be allowed to harry pedestrians and the street is far too dangerous for them. Over the years I have risked my life on numerous occasions rescuing dogs from busy highways where they had either been dumped or had broken free from their leashes and I therefore know just how dangerous a situation dogs in the street create.

On St. Patrick's Day the Washington Post printed a story about a trio of pit bulls which had been harassing pedestrians and animals in a Virginia neighborhood for about a year ("Neighbors Reported Dog Attacks. Animal Control Faulted for Inaction Before Spotsylvania Woman's Mauling." Available online at www.washingtonpost.com). The reign of canine terror, which had previously claimed the lives of several cats and dogs, culminated recently in the fatal mauling of an eighty-two year old woman. Although both Animal Control and the sheriff's department had known about these attacks from the outset, neither of them did anything to stop them. This sort of irresponsible behavior on the part of both policemen and politicians needs to end.

Although Silver was a rather nasty dog I was -- and remain -- nonetheless deeply saddened by his horrific death. I never blame vicious dogs for their behavior; it is their owners who are at fault. Had he been properly socialized, disciplined, and kept on a leash this beautiful dog could have had a long and joyful life; instead, he is now only a tangle of crushed bones and bloody white fur decomposing in some landfill. It is disgusting to live in a society where there are not only so many pet owners like Silver's but also an equal number of highly-paid, do-nothing public officials and animal rights groups who turn a blind eye to the blatant misuse and abuse of animals.