The Morally Bankrupt Washington Post Pens a Love Letter to Shelter Workers Who Exterminate Cats and Dogs

A Dog Named Bear with a Shelter Employee

In its September 26th edition, the morally bankrupt Washington Post published a story written by Karin Brulliard which can only be described as a love letter to cat and dog murderers. Specifically, Brulliard visited the Loudoun County Animal Shelter in Leesburg, Virginia, and then penned a long-winded piece in support of its workers who last year exterminated 1,360 cats and dogs; that figure represents forty-seven per cent of the total number of felines and canines that it took in.

Nowhere in the article did Brulliard even acknowledge the immorality of exterminating animals.

She begins by praising the establishment of what she calls "compassion fatigue" workshops at shelters for employees who suffer from trauma and depression as a consequence of their slaughtering of defenseless animals. This is all psycho-babble and nonsense and clearly demonstrates the complete moral depravity of both the Loudoun shelter and The Washington Post.

Individuals who kill animals are committing grievous crimes but there is nothing per se mentally wrong with them. What they are suffering from are guilty consciences.

Deep down inside they know that what they are doing is morally wrong and all the made-up rationalizations of all the highly-paid, phony-baloney shrinks in this world is not going to change that. Besides, most psychiatrists are little more than third-rate philosophers with licenses to peddle drugs.

Brulliard goes on to recite the usual litany of trite rationalizations employed to justify the extermination of animals: death is not the worse thing in the world for them; they will be happier in heaven; and, they are not really cats and dogs, just inanimate objects. One can only wonder how Brulliard would react if someone were to stick a .38 to her addled gourd and, before pulling the trigger, give her a good dose of her own sophistry.

Just as is the case with humans, cats and dogs do not have any control over the circumstances into which they are born. Tragically, all too many of them are born homeless or are later abandoned to fend for themselves.

Contrary to what a lot of people in this capitalist dystopia believe, being homeless is not a crime for either animals or humans. Homeless cats and dogs have not committed any crimes and those which are exterminated in Loudoun and elsewhere certainly never received anything approaching due process of law. Despite what the murderers and megalomaniacs at both animal shelters and The Washington Post believe, they do not have the right to kill cats and dogs!

If being homeless were not bad enough, shelter cats and dogs are forced to endure the trauma of being trapped which is quickly followed up by confinement in institutions where disease, fear, and noise are the norms. On top of all of that misery there is the blatant hypocrisy of the very workers that Brulliard praises.

They work to gain these unfortunate animals' trust only so as to make them more pliable and thus easier to kill. Once they have done their dirty deeds, they indiscriminately dump their victims' corpses in landfills just as if they were part of the regular garbage which they take out each evening.

From the time of their arrivals to their departures in black trash bags, the entire shelter process is one of abuse and extermination. This is the sad fate for ten million cats and seven million dogs every year in the United States.

Finally, Brulliard lets slip that some shelter workers fear that they may very well wind up in Hell for their crimes. If only that were true! More likely, however, they are just talking through their hats.

If they really believed in an afterlife they would not be killing cats and dogs in the first place. All of them do it for the money and many of them no doubt get a kick out of abusing and killing animals.

Shelter workers are monsters who, far from deserving the public's sympathy, should be jailed. It is all the homeless cats and dogs in this world who deserve mankind's sympathy. Malheureusement, this is beyond the grasp of the twisted minds at The Washington Post.

Photo: The Washington Post.

With Friends Like Bobby Kennedy, Jr., Do the Animals and the Environment Really Need Enemies?

Although he likes to gallivant across the country as a self-anointed defender of the environment and animals, Bobby Kennedy, Jr.'s (See photo) recent speech in San Francisco before the disreputable Sierra Club revealed some disturbing incongruities in his thinking.

First of all, when he writes that "... we're not protecting the environment for the sake of the fishes and birds and trees. We're protecting it for our own sake because it's the infrastructure of our communities and because it enriches us," he reveals himself to be nearly as morally and intellectually bankrupt as the polluters and animal-annihilators that he is attacking. To fully comprehend the enormity of his faux pas, Kennedy's views should be contrasted with the breathtakingly beautiful lyrics to "Colors of the Wind" which Stephen Schwartz penned for Disney's Pocahontas:

You think you own whatever land you land on
The earth is just a dead thing you can claim
But I know every rock and tree and creature
Has a life, has a spirit, has a name.

Further along in verse four, Schwartz adds:

Come roll in all the riches all around you
And for once, never wonder what they're worth.

Writers as far back as Aristotle (The History of Animals) and as recent as Darwin have known that animals have souls. The overwhelming preponderance of modern research confirms that animals are not very much different from man. They nurture and educate their young; they have language and reasoning skills; they possess a sense of self-awareness; and, they mourn the deaths of loved ones. It is therefore clear that anyone who treats either the environment or the animals as merely inanimate objects is not only morally incorrect but also committing a grievous intellectual error which is bound to have dire consequences. More importantly, anyone serious about either the animals or the environment must first recognize the intrinsic value of both of them and then be willing to work to secure their protection through the enactment of laws which respect their uniqueness as distinguished from man's exploitative interest in them.

Secondly, Kennedy's effusive praise of free market capitalism as being good for the environment is an outright lie and he knows it to be such. For starters, with American politics being a thoroughly corrupt as it is, there is little chance of anyone taking away the polluters' welfare checks or subsidies as Kennedy calls them. Furthermore, capitalists are only part of the problem. What about their ugly-ass partners in the rape of nature, the insatiable middle class? No one forces consumers to drive gas-guzzling SUVs and pickup trucks or to consume animal flesh. Kennedy, however, does not have the intestinal fortitude to call consumers to account for their greed and destruction of nature. If the hoi polloi had their way there would be an oil derrick on every lawn in America and anyone venturing outside for a noontime stroll would need a respirator and night-vision goggles just to breathe and see through the pollution.

Thirdly, being a Roman Catholic, Kennedy slams the idea of worshiping nature as god in spite of the undeniable fact that neither the Christians' nor the Jews' record on either the environment or animal rights is very positive. In fact, back in 1969 historian Lynn White laid the blame for the destruction of the environment squarely at the feet of the religious establishment (See his seminal work, The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis). From what little information that has survived the Christians' obliteration campaign, the pagans, including in particular Native Americans, seem to have been far more environmentally and animal friendly than any of their conquerors.

Fourthly, despite all of his long-windedness, Kennedy offers absolutely no game plan as to how either the environment or the animals are to be saved. For instance, how is power to be taken back from the polluters? How are the abattoirs to be shut down and the rifles of the trophy hunters silenced? How is consumer greed to be curbed? How can there even be free elections and free speech when the rich and powerful own the election process, nearly all politicians, and all mass media? While he is quick to lambaste Bush and the Republicans, are his fellow Democrats any less opposed to environmentalism and animal rights? Likewise, Kennedy does not hesitate to slam Evangelicals but are the Jews and his beloved Roman Catholics any less bigoted, greedy, and corrupt? He is simply too hypocritical and, above all, too cowardly to hold them accountable for their crimes.

Finally, in accepting the Bill Douglas Award from the Sierra Club, Kennedy has joined forces with an organization which is not only pro-war (Iraq) but pro-hunting as well. It was only last summer that the unscrupulous Sierra Club attempted to strike a deal with the diabolical National Rifle Association (NRA) whereby it would support hunters' rights in exchange for the latter's support of its conservation activities. The big losers in this Faustian bargain would have been, of course, the millions of defenseless animals that the Sierra Club attempted to sell down the river. Hilariously enough, the NRA wisely decided that the Sierra Club was too corrupt even for it to do business with and queered the deal at the last minute. (See, NRA and Outdoor Writers Have Falling Out, Washington Post, 10 July 2004).

The sad truth about both the environmental and animal rights movements is that with the notable exceptions of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), most of the groups involved are unwilling to do either the hard thinking or the trench work required in order to save Mother Earth and the animals. Tant pis, they are often corrupt and quick as lightning to sell out.

Photo: Sierra Club

Two New Zealand Teens Douse Three Caged Cats with Glue and Burn Them to Death

Two teenage monsters from Huntly, about an hour south of Auckland, were given light sentences last month for burning to death three caged felines back in April. Wirimu Karena (Left photo), described as a seventeen-year old homeless student, and Sahn Papa (Right photo), an eighteen-year old sawmill worker, poured glue over the defenseless cats and then set them ablaze. The entire incident was captured on video, including the defenseless felines' ear-splitting shrieks of terror and pain. The fire killed one of the cats and authorities polished off the two remaining badly-burned felines.

Karena received only a two-year sentence and Papa a miniscule nine months. They have also been ordered to undergo six months of alcohol and drug counseling after their release. Neither teen has expressed any remorse over the killings; au contraire, they appear to be rather proud of themselves. Moreover, on several occasions during the court proceedings, Karena (See photo below) and Papa showed their contempt for the entire process by giving the finger to onlookers.

As dastardly and as morally inexcusable as this horrific act was, New Zealand society as a whole is also culpable. Like their Australian neighbors to the north, New Zealanders hate cats and exterminate as many of them as they can on the pretext that the felines are decimating the bird and small mammal populations. In this case, the three cats were trapped by animal control in Huntly and would have been exterminated anyway. Moreover, Papa's behavior was motivated in part because he recognized the trap as belonging to an animal control officer whom he suspected of shooting a friend's dog. Now, what is animal control doing going around shooting dogs?

The authorities in New Zealand rant and rave about the actions of morally deprived juveniles while they themselves behave in a far worse manner by exterminating animals en masse and without a scintilla of remorse. As Rousseau said in Emile, a person teaches by example, not by preaching one thing and doing another. Things are the same in the United States. When Bush, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz exterminate Iraqis, Palestinians, and Afghans they are teaching American youths that it is permissible to kill people simply because you do not like them. The same is true for the way in which Bush the Elder and Clinton treated the religious dissenters at Ruby Ridge and Waco. Likewise, when capitalists exploit teenage workers (and everyone else!) they are teaching them that it is okay to swindle workers out of their labor. Ergo, children all over the world are being brought up to believe that the way to get ahead in this world is through violence and economic exploitation of the defenseless, the animals, and the environment.

As shocking as this case is, it is just one of numerous cases of horrific animal abuse and neglect that occur on a regular basis in New Zealand, according to The New Zealand Herald. For example, the corpse of Patsy, a cat belonging to the investigating officer in this case, Sergeant Blair Donaldson, was discovered in two pieces outside the police station shortly before Karena's and Papa's sentencing. No arrests have been made in poor Patsy's murder but Donaldson believes that Karena and Papa will have a rough go of it behind bars. Whatever abuse that they might suffer at the hands of other inmates will pale in comparison however to what they did to those three helpless cats. More to the point, they should not be allowed out of jail under any circumstances.

Just a day or so ago a female German hitchhiker was stabbed to death in New Zealand and so the violence continues. From top to bottom, New Zealand appears to be a very sick society.

Photos: The New Zealand Herald and the Waikato Times.

College Students in South Africa Cook a Cat to Death in a Microwave Oven

A tortoiseshell cat named Tango was cooked to death in a microwave oven by students on the campus of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) near Durban, South Africa, back in May of this year.

Tango, who belonged to campus security chief Nareen Rambharren, was discovered fried to a crisp in a microwave oven by a custodian at the men's dormitory at UKZN's Pinewood campus. Four of the resident Education majors have been questioned in the case and the local prosecutor is expected to decide soon whether there is enough evidence to bring formal charges against the quartet. Even if found guilty, the maximum sentence that they could receive would be a fine of R20,000 and two years in jail.

Students at the university have so far been uncooperative with the investigation; in fact, they have even gone so far as to chase from campus an SPCA official looking into the incident. Even more disturbing is the petit fait that when residents of the dorm were first questioned about the incident some of them reportedly laughed openly about what they had done to poor Tango. A reward of R31,500 has been offered in the case.

For college-educated, would-be teachers to be behaving in such a cruel and barbaric manner does not speak well for either KwaZula-Natal or South African society in general.

Alleged Use of Cats in Order to Make Bio-Diesel Fuel Creates Uproar in Deutschland

With Benzin retailing for more than $7 a gallon, Deutschland desperately needs a cheaper alternative but not one which is made from cats. That was the reaction last week to a newspaper report that a German inventor had developed a bio-diesel fuel out of dead cats and other organic materials. A headline in the September 13th edition of Bild proclaimed Deutscher Erfinder kann aus Katchen Benzin machen, while above it a kicker added der Todesstoss, Fur eine Tankfullung braucht er 20 Miezen.

The reaction from stunned and outraged ailurophiles was swift and predictable. Wolfgang Apel, president of the Deutschland Tierschutzverein, was quick to point out that while using dead cats as fuel was illegal, his organization nonetheless intended to keep a close eye on the situation.

Once the shit had hit the proverbial fan, the inventor, Christian Koch, 55, from the state of Sachsen (See photo of him filling his tank), was quick to deny that he used dead cats in order to make his new fuel. "I use paper, plastics, textiles, and rubbish," he later told Reuters. "It's an alternative fuel that is friendly for the environment. But it's complete nonsense to suggest dead cats. I've never used cats and would never think of that." The authors of the original story, Jurgen Helfricht and Sven Gunther, were quick to admit that Koch had never told them explicitly that he used dead cats and that their story was meant only to imply that Katzen could in theory be used to make Benzin.

Despite having uttered that unequivocal denial, Koch then proceeded in the very next sentence to utter the stunning non sequitur: "At most the odd toad may have jumped in." It is therefore hard to know if he is indeed using cats and other animals at his plant. If he is, it can be safely said that they are not willingly jumping into the tank.

Koch claims that his firm, Alphakat GmbH, can produce bio-diesel fuel for about .23 euros (.30 US) a liter and the original article in Bild quoted him as saying that adding twenty cats to the mix could produce enough fuel to fill a fifty-liter (11 gallon) tank. Koch uses his patented Catalytic Pressureless Depolymerisation (KDV 500) machine (See photo below) to convert waste into Benzin and he claims to have driven his diesel-powered car on the mixture 170,000 kilometers (106,000 miles) without a hitch.

Despite the success of his undertaking, it is wrong to use feline cadavers in order to make Benzin or anything else for that matter. Katzen are entitled to proper, undisturbed burials just like any other living creature once their short, tragic lives come to an end.


Photos: Deutsche Welle, Bild, and www.alphakat.de.

Scarlett, the Cat Who Saved Her Kittens from a Burning Building in 1996, Is Still Alive on Long Island

Scarlett

It was way back in the spring of 1996 that the world first became acquainted with Scarlett. She was the courageous black and white cat who made five trips into a burning building in Brooklyn, New York in order to carry to safety her five, four-week old kittens.

Once the image of her with her blistered-shut eyes, burned paws, and singed fur was flashed around the world she not only became famous but her self-sacrifice and maternal devotion became an inspiration to one and all.

According to information supplied by Marilyn Di Toro of the North Shore Animal League (NASL) in Port Washington, Long Island, Scarlett is still alive and doing relatively well considering the extent of her injuries. She still lives with Karen Wellen on Long Island and visits NSAL's medical center every six months for check-ups.

Unfortunately, she still carries with her the scars from her ordeal back in 1996. For instance, there are places on her body where the fur has not grown back and the tips of her ears and her eyelids were burned off by the inferno.

Medication must therefore be applied to her eyes several times a day in order to keep them moist. Apparently, she is not in too much discomfort.

Scarlett Had a Long and Difficult Recovery

Two of the kittens that Scarlett pulled from the fire, Oreo and Cinders, live with Debbie Palmarozzo in East Hampton. Oreo is healthy but Cinders has a condition known as cerebella which causes him to lose his balance.

Samsara and Tanuki still live with Corinne and Ginette Vercillo in Port Washington and are reportedly in good health. Scarlett's fifth offspring suffered severe smoke inhalation and died shortly after his rescue back in 1996.

According to Ms. Di Toro, Scarlett's popularity has not waned much during the past nine years and NSAL still receives inquiries about her and her kittens from as far away as Japan.

It is sad that Scarlett had to -- and continues to -- suffer for her bravery. Nonetheless, she remains an inspiration to people everywhere and one can only wish her and her now fully-grown kittens continued good health, a long life, and Godspeed.

Having known so much pain in her life, she deserves from now on to know only good things.

Photos: Moggies.

The USDA's Wildlife Services Exterminates Millions of Animals Each Year at the Behest of Capitalists

A Cougar Named KC at Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas

"Most of the public has no idea that a significant portion of the federal wildlife budget is actually devoted to extermination; animals that inconvenience humans become expendable 'varmints' that are then dispatched with stunning efficiency."

-- Jeff Ruch of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)

While both public and private groups work to preserve wild animals and their habitats, the United States Government is busy exterminating wildlife. For instance, in 2004 Wildlife Services, a division of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), exterminated more than 2.7 million wild animals. That equates to an astonishing five killings per minute and represents an increase of more than a million deaths over the previous year.

Animal deaths included 31,286 beavers, 3,236 opossums, 2,210 prairie dogs, 10,518 raccoons, and 1,673 rabbits and hares. Plus, 397 black bears, 359 cougars, 75,674 coyotes, 3,907 foxes, and 191 wolves were also exterminated. It was birds, however, who bore the brunt of Wildlife Services' wrath. For instance, 2.3 million starlings, 22,204 crows, ravens, and blackbirds, 76,874 pigeons and doves, 10,806 geese and swans, 72 wild turkeys, 15,508 sparrows, and 143 free-range chickens were eradicated.

The fascists and inveterate liars at the National Audubon Society, the American Bird Conservancy, National Wildlife, PETA, and National Geographic, all of which have called for the extermination of all feral cats because of their alleged predatory impact on birds, have been conspicuously silent on this subject. None of them have anything to say about the detrimental effect capitalism, pollution, and unchecked economic development has on avian species; according to these ailurophobes, only cats are to blame for avian mortality.

Two Wolves from Denali National Park in Alaska

Worst still, Wildlife Services is in the hip pocket of ranchers, farmers, and local municipalities who are the driving forces behind these free, taxpayer-paid exterminations. It is also important to remember that farmers already receive $21 billion a year in welfare from the federal government and ranchers are allowed to fatten their herds on government land for pennies.

Ninety per cent of these so-called nuisance animals are dispatched with poisons such as sodium cyanide and strychnine. The remainder are shot with guns from aircraft, killed in their dens, or succumb to agonizingly slow deaths in kill traps.

All of these barbaric methods also lead to the unintentional killing of non-target species. Zum Beispiel, poisons targeting starlings in cattle feedlots also claims the lives of owls, hawks, magpies, raccoons, and cats.

"Most of the public has no idea that a significant portion of the federal wildlife budget is actually devoted to extermination; animals that inconvenience humans become expendable 'varmints' that are then dispatched with stunning efficiency," Jeff Ruch of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) said in a September 8th press release. "With all of our unmet social and infrastructure needs, it is amazing that the federal government finances an entire fleet of aircraft for the purpose of hunting wildlife," he added.

Writing in the same press release, Wendy Keefover-Ring of the environmental group Sinapu labeled the toll exacted on ecosystems by Wildlife Services' killings as "jaw dropping."

Photos: spfdbus.com and wildnatureimages.com

Clones of Endangered African Wildcats Give Birth to Eight Naturally-Bred Healthy Kittens in New Orleans

Madge's Five Kittens

For the first time in history two unrelated wildlife clones have given birth to naturally-bred offspring. This pioneering event occurred near the end of July at the Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species (ACRES) in New Orleans where two African wildcats named Madge and Caty gave birth to a combined total of eight healthy kittens.

Cloned domestic animals such as cows and sheep along with mice have successfully reproduced in the past. This also marks the first time that any feline clones, domestic or wild, have been naturally bred; cloned domestic cats, such as the famous CC, have so far been unable to reproduce.

Both Madge and Caty are clones of an African wildcat named Nancy while the father of both litters is a cloned African wildcat named Ditteaux. His father, Jazz, made history on August 6th, 2003 when he was born as the result of a cryopressed embryo being implanted in a domestic cat named Brooke.

In order to produce clones such as Jazz, scientists at ACRES, a division of the Audubon Nature Institute, first extracted DNA from cell tissues taken from African wildcats and then transplanted it to eggs (occytes) of domestic cats which had earlier had their DNA removed. Electrical stimulation was applied to the new eggs in order to produce cloned embryos of African wildcats. The cloned embryos were then implanted in the wombs of surrogate domestic cats who in turn gave birth to cloned African wildcat kittens.

The objective of this research is to preserve endangered species, such as African wildcats, from extinction. The process itself is fairly straightforward. Frozen skin samples from dead animals are used to create the clones and the genes are then introduced back into the population through natural breeding. Dr. Betty Dresser, head of the cloning team, said that while no single approach is going to save all wildlife from extinction, cloning is nonetheless an important tool in that process.

Having successfully cloned and then naturally bred African wildcats, ACRES is now turning its attention to assisted reproduction for endangered fishing cats, black-footed cats, and rusty-spotted cats. It is also working to save bongo antelopes, clouded leopards, and several varieties of storks.

Brooke and Ditteaux

The eight kittens will be exhibited to the public later this year but as soon as they begin to demonstrate their wildness they will be returned to the lab for additional study. The Audubon Nature Institute's web site does not say anything about adoption or returning these "guinea pigs" to the wild. Meanwhile, it is begging the public to adopt the surrogate mothers from its colony of domestic cats.

While the preservation of endangered species is certainly a noble undertaking, cloning remains nonetheless an exceedingly painful and sometimes deadly ordeal for the animals caught up in the researchers' web of manipulation. For instance, how many domestic and African wildcats did ACRES have to torture and kill just so that it could produce these eight kittens?

The Center is conspicuously silent on this point. Moreover, no group of cloners is willing to reveal their mortality rates. Consequently, no one can say with any certainty if saving endangered species via cloning is a good thing or mere barbarism. It can be safely said, however, that the cloning of cats and dogs for commercial sale is a prime example of capitalism at its worst.

Although damaged by Katrina, the Audubon's multipurpose compound weathered the storm better than most of the city thanks not only to its being located on higher ground but also because it had an emergency plan in place. Despite all of that, approximately 1,500 of the 10,000 fish at the Aquarium of the Americas died due to a lack of electricity to power the air pumps that deliver oxygen to the fish tanks.

At the Audubon Zoo, two river otters and a raccoon perished and a crocodile is missing. The Metro of Philadelphia reported on September 2nd that a rare white alligator named Thibodaux who is on loan to Jenkinson's Aquarium in Point Pleasant will be staying in New Jersey for a while longer because of damage to the New Orleans facility.

The zoo and the aquarium are expected to be closed to the public for at least a year. No information is available at this time as to how the African wildcats and their domestic cousins fared during the storm, but a whopping crane reportedly perished at ACRES.

Photos: Audubon Center for Research of Endangered Species.

Ginny, a Dog Who Rescued Cats, Is Killed Off by Her Owner on Long Island

Ginny, a seventeen-year old schnauzer-husky mix from Long Beach, Long Island who was famous for rescuing cats, was killed off by her owner, Philip Gonzalez, on August 25th. At the time of her death she had stopped eating and was incontinent and arthritic.

Although an August 28th story in Newsday did not go into the gory details, the kindhearted dog was most likely dispatched with a jab of sodium pentobarbitol to either the heart or to a vein. A memorial service was held on August 27th at Regency Forest Pet Memorial Park in Middle Island.

The killing of either an elderly or a sickly pet is usually justified on the grounds of compassion but this is nonsense. Life is primarily suffering and this holds true for animals as well as for humans.

This life and this time are all there is; the Rainbow Bridge is most likely a fantasy. As Lucretius wrote in the De Rerum Natura, small pains are bearable while severe ones are brief and deadly.

Nature reclaims its own all in good time; man's intervention is neither needed nor warranted. Although pet owners claim that they have their pets' best interests at heart when they snuff out their short lives, an unwillingness to attend to -- and to pay for -- a sick pet is probably the real motivation behind their ungratefulness. In sum, Gonzalez was wrong to have killed Ginny.

Gonzalez estimates that Ginny saved approximately eight-hundred homeless and sick cats during her lifetime. She not only rescued them from the fields and streets where she lived, but also from hard-to-find places such as drain pipes, Dumpsters, and the glove compartments of cars.

Normally cats are fearful of dogs, but Gonzalez insists that cats came running up to Ginny (See photo above of her with a cat named Chairman of the Board.)

Although inter-species altruism is not unheard of, Ginny certainly carried hers to new heights. Since her previous owner had left her and her three puppies abandoned in a locked closet for a week, some observers feel that this is what motivated her altruism.

Others have interpreted her behavior as an example of the materal instinct gone haywire. Gonzalez labeled it simply as her "radar of the heart."

Gonzalez, a former steamfitter, adopted Ginny in 1990 in an effort to help alleviate his depression which was brought on by an accident at work. On their third day together Ginny discovered a stray cat in a vacant lot and that was the beginning of her exploits as a cat rescuer.

In 1995, Gonzalez published The Dog Who Rescues Cats: The True Story of Ginny and followed it up a year later with The Blessing of the Animals.

A cat-lover himself, Gonzalez rises every day at 2 a.m. and makes the rounds of nineteen feral cat colonies where he feeds approximately 320 cats. Although Ginny is gone, this will not change, but he will have to soldier on by his lonesome because none of his three remaining canines share Ginny's fondness for cats. At one time he kept as many as sixty-seven felines but now he is down to eighteen.

Photo: Newsday.

Danbury Teens Poison and Club to Death with Baseball Bats Twenty Cats; Another One Is Snared in a Leghold Trap

"... the unfortunate feline species seemed to be fair game for every kind of cruelty and neglect. They shot cats, threw things at them, starved them and set their dogs on them for fun." James Herriot, Cat Stories.

A group of diabolical teens in Danbury, Connecticut has either poisoned or clubbed to death with baseball bats at least twenty cats during the past six months, according to the Danbury Animal Welfare Society (DAWS). Numerous other cats have also been maimed by these juvenile monsters.

In addition to the dead cats, up to thirty live cats and kittens were discovered about two weeks ago at a Sheridan Road residence, including one who had a leg caught in a leghold trap. The owner of the property inherited three felines from the previous owner but over the years their numbers multiplied and then the teens started preying upon them.

The injured cat, a dark-gray striped cat named Simon, had his right hind leg operated on and put in a cast by veterinarian Cary Brenner. Since the leg was so badly infected it is not known even if the leg is broken. Dr. Brenner told the News-Times that both amputation and extermination are options in Simon's case. That is some way for a veterinarian, whose job it is to save lives, to talk! At the very least he should x-ray the leg in order to determine the extent of the damage and then plan a course of treatment. Under no circumstances should Simon be harmed in any way. A check of DAWS' web site yesterday revealed that Simon is, fortunately, still alive and up for adoption but that donations are needed to cover his medical bills. So far no one has been arrested in this case although officials believe that the trap was set on purpose.

Meanwhile, DAWS is trying to find homes for the fourteen cats which it took from the property. The kittens should not have any problems adjusting to domestication but relocation to either a rural area or to farmers' barns may be the only humane options available to the older cats. The News-Times is conspicuously silent as to the fate of the remaining sixteen cats found on the property which implies that officials have already exterminated them. If, on the other hand, they have been left on the property they direly need police protection.

Sooner or later this society is going to have to do something about these bands of juvenile hoodlums who not only maim and kill helpless animals but also commit all sorts of other atrocities. They set ablaze and harass homeless people for kicks. They destroy both public and private property through acts of arson, vandalism, and graffiti. They terrorize mass transit with their disorderliness and vulgarities and they appropriate every abandoned building and wooded area for their smoking, doping, drinking, and sexual exploits.

By far and away the worse offenders are middle-class white kids, especially those of Irish and Italian descent. Quite often their parents are policemen, firemen, politicians, and lions of the business world. Worst still, the fascist police not only shield them from prosecution but sometimes join in with them in the commission of these and other heinous crimes. Since these kids come from money, they operate with impunity. When Peter Harvey was first installed as attorney general of New Jersey he wasted no time in demonstrating his dishonesty when he stated that he did not understand why most juvenile offenders are either blacks or Hispanics. There is not any mystery here. People born into money are able to commit crimes from womb to tomb while the poor go to the gulags for so much as spitting in the street.