THEY WALK AMONG US

I touched on this subject a little bit last week, but I wanted to write about it some more because education is always a good thing. I wrote about the black German Shepherd female that was used as a brood bitch for a fighting dog operation. They used this bitches puppies as bait dogs for their nasty �hobby.� I also reported that she was rescued and is spayed living with a family. The reason that I�m re-visiting this subject so soon is because of a few things that I saw and read this morning.

I belong to Face Book. I never thought I would really enjoy it as much as I do. I�m not however, one of those people that is on it 24 hours a day. I check in a few times a day because there is always some new up to the minute news that is added. Besides there are a ton of German Shepherd Dog people on there. There are lots of pictures and lots of conversation and some enjoyable activities I partake in. This morning there was a video about a book that is due to be launched in October called �Oogy.� I watched the video and it told of a story of a pit bull puppy used as a bait dog like the black German Shepherd�s puppies were. His story wasn�t any different. He too was used and abused like all the other puppies for this horrific act of violence. Most of them never come out of that ring alive. And the few that do are damaged beyond repair. Oogy is one of the fortunate ones that made it out with his life but Oogy is terribly disfigured. When you look at his head face on, it looks lopsided. One side of his face is severely scared and his one ear was totally torn off his head. He is a funny looking character and some might call him downright homely. But once you get past his unattractive head, the thing that catches your eye is the spirit of this dog. It is the spirit of this dog and the smile on his face if you will, that lights up an otherwise unappealing face.

This is what I wanted to touch on today; the spirit of the dog. How can dogs that have been so badly abused and tortured, love and trust a human being ever again? I am totally amazed and in awe of these dogs that have had their lives almost taken from them at the hands of a human being (????) turn around and give and accept love from us ever again. How can they be so forgiven of man? How can they allow the hand that abused him to now stroke and love him? How do they do this? Is this what is called blind faith? Are they what some call, �just a dumb dog� after all? What separates the dogs tolerance of unfairness from that of mans? Most of us would lash out and protect ourselves or at the least never forgive extreme abuse from anyone. What makes the dog so darn forgiving? Why does he tolerate so much from man? Some may say because man is his main source of his food supply. Without man feeding the dog, surely he would starve if left to his own means. Or maybe he would be forced to turn to his ancestor, the wolf and learn the �call of the wild� methods of survival once again.

Do you think that the dog has been so domesticated by man that he will accept anything and everything that man does to him? When you think of it, man is all the dog knows about. He is so far removed from his ancient ancestors (the wolf) that his need to survive is so dependent on man. Man is the alpha in the pack when a dog is involved and like in a pack in the wild, the subservient members will take just about anything from the alpha including being beat up, mauled and sometimes killed. Is this why the dog tolerates so much from man? Is this why he would give up his life for man? It could very well be.

So no matter how long we domesticate the dog, way down deep in his DNA, he is programmed for his need to have a pack leader and because of this (in my opinion) he will take whatever is given to him as his lot in life. So if he is born in to a life of abuse, he will suffer silently just as he would if he was one of the lowly members of a pack in the wild. Take a look at the animal programs about animals that live in packs. The lowest member of the family is often the one that is mistreated, picked on and sometimes killed by the alpha or those in higher authority. Could this then explain why the dog tolerates so much abuse from man?

I received an e-mail this morning from one of the rescue groups that I send this blog to a very interesting but disturbing letter. Those of you that don�t belong to my e-mail list don�t always get everything that I send to that group or the things that they send to me. Last week I wrote a letter to a Free Cycle group that I recently joined. I mentioned it here on my blog as well. However, on my list I forwarded the letter that I wrote to one of the owners of that list. My concern was that they now will be offering animals to people on their list. She reassured me that the majority of the people on her list were all for this, so I was voted down. It is something new that they are doing. I saw a turtle listed there a few days ago and someone already claimed him. I�ll be watching what other animals that they list as well.

Well anyway getting back to today�s e-mail from one of the rescue lists. It was a very well written and informative letter about a woman that is a �collector� of animals. She used Craig�s list to make money off of the animals that she adopts from shelters. They are left in cages in their own urine and feces. It seems that this woman is contacting breeders about puppies that they have advertised. She gets the dogs and abuses them for her own sick, evil mind and then re-sells them. Because some people are very desperate to find homes for their puppies, this person could call them and sweet talk them in to letting their puppies go to her. PLEASE BE CAREFUL! There are a lot of �not so nice� people roaming the streets looking for unsuspected victims!

Be aware of lists and groups and social websites. Predators walk among us. I just heard of an incident last night from a teenage girl that I mentor who had a page on My Space. She contacted me and copied and pasted something someone wrote to her. I told her not to respond to him at all. Her aunt and uncle made her close her page down. So we have to be careful with our children and our animals. It truly is a jungle out there but unlike the animals in the jungle who hunt and kill to survive, there exist in our world those that hunt and kill for the sheer pleasure it brings to them.


From the book: "THE LUCIFER EFFECT: UNDERSTANDING HOW GOOD PEOPLE TURN EVIL"....Social psychologist Zimbardo is best known as the father of the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment, which used a simulated prison populated with student volunteers to illustrate the extent to which identity is situated within a social setting; student volunteers randomly chosen to play guards became cruel and authoritarian, while those playing inmates became rebellious and depressed. With this book, Zimbardo couples a thorough narrative of the Stanford Prison Experiment with an analysis of the social dynamics of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, arguing that the "experimental dehumanization" of the former is instructive in understanding the abusive conduct of guards at the latter. This comparison, which is the book's core insight, is embedded in a sprawling discussion about situational influences that cobbles together a discussion of the psychology of evil, a strong criticism of the Bush administration, and a chapter celebrating heroism and calling for greater social bravery. This account's Abu Ghraib focus will generate demand.


My rating: Social networks and lists: (1 - 4)