A Texas Newspaper Defends Pet Genocide by Publishing Graphic Photographs of Shelter Workers Exterminating a Dog

"Love the animals. God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy untroubled. Don't trouble it, don't harass them, don't deprive them of their happiness, don't work against God's intent."
-- Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

Most newspapers do not publish photographs of cats and dogs being exterminated at shelters but The Austin Chronicle broke that taboo in its November 18th edition. Accompanying a lengthy story by Rachel Proctor May entitled "What Happened to the No-Kill Millennium? Austin's Plan to End Wholesale Euthanasia at Town Lake Shelter Remains a Distant Dream," were graphic photos of shelter workers Kara Montiel and Katie Marcel (See top photo above) killing a dog and two other unidentified workers (See bottom photo above) stuffing its lifeless body into a black plastic trash bag. The dog was later transported to a local landfill along with dozens of other murdered cats and dogs and unceremoniously dumped.

The photo below shows Town Lake Animal Center (TLAC) director Dorinda Pulliam (right) on the prowl for another victim. Fortunately, she decided to give the helpless cat, named Toby, a reprieve and to put him up for adoption. Although the capitalistic Austin Chronicle would never say so, this was probably done more out of monetary considerations than compassion. Most shelters charge patrons about $100 for each cat and dog that they adopt so consequently a good-looking, friendly cat or dog is worth considerably more to the money-grubbing murderers who run these centers than are the less attractive and less sociable ones.

May's long-winded spiel in defense of licensed animal annihilators trotted out all of the timeworn justifications for pet genocide: no room at the inn, a lack of funding, sickly, injured, and unsociable animals deserve to be killed, etc. She then went on to call for more sterilizations and high-priced licenses for pet owners who do not sterilize their cats and dogs, more programs to educate pet owners, and new and better shelters. Nowhere throughout her many pages of drivel did she evince an ounce of remorse for the 13,000 cats and dogs exterminated at TLAC last year. More startling, May never once broached the subject of the immorality of killing animals. Instead, she accepts unquestionably man's right to exterminate cats and dogs.

Although the sentiments of The Austin Chronicle are identical with those expressed earlier this fall by the Washington Post (See Morally Bankrupt Washington Post Pens a Love Letter to Shelter Workers Who Exterminate Cats and Dogs, Cat Defender, September 30, 2005), that certainly does not make them correct. Furthermore, May's concluding assertion that practitioners of pet genocide love animals would be laughable if it were not so tragic.

The Austin shelter has a kill rate of above fifty per cent and many shelters across the country have kill rates of ninety per cent or higher. PETA's shelter in Norfolk, Virginia, for instance, had a kill rate of 86.3 per cent during 2004. More alarmingly, the kill rate for feral cats and kittens is almost one-hundred per cent. More money and additional shelter space will not solve the problem. Man must first accept the moral imperative that all animals have an inalienable right to life, dignity, and freedom. In fact, it could be argued that animals have a greater entitlement to life than do humans in that they are incapable of perpetrating the types of hideous crimes against Mother Nature, other animals, and people that man commits every day. They are, in short, simply better citizens of this planet than man ever has been or ever will be.

In order to protect the sanctity of animal life, a necessary first step must include the outlawing of the killing of all homeless cats and dogs for whatever reason. Only after that has been done will alternatives be found to pet genocide. As long as shelters are allowed to continue to make money exterminating cats and dogs they are going to continue to do so. The monsters who operate and work in shelters should have their gravy trains immediately cut off.

A trap, a jab of sodium pentobarbital, a black trash bag, and a quick trip to the city dump make it all too easy for this society to dispose of its unwanted pets. Pet genocide is an out-of-sight, out-of-mind crime and this urgently needs to be changed. The words which Leo Tolstoy used to denounce vivisection apply equally to pet genocide: "... if people admit that they have the right to take or endanger the life of living beings for the benefit of many, there will be no limit for their cruelty... Man by violating his own feelings becomes cruel. And how deeply seated in the human heart is the injunction not to take life."

Photos: John Anderson, The Austin Chronicle.