May 12, 2013
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I remember the day when I saw it. I looked into his eyes: he didn’t want to live anymore. He had some kind of medical condition where his intestines were coming out and he could barely see because of cataracts. And he was just plain tired. And it was sad. My dad was raised in a time where you don’t spend money on animals. You take them out back and shoot them when they are suffering like that. But times are changing and my dad didn’t have a shotgun, so Max our dog was humanly put to sleep with many tears.
I saw it again the other day, waiting for the bus. A dog that should just be dead. He was wandering aimlessly along the road, limping. All his fur was gone and his wrinkled skin was covered with scars and open wounds. I winced every time he got close to an oncoming car. He didn’t even notice, he knew it was his time. I just didn’t want to see it. I just wanted him to go away.
I have an unproved theory about society and animals: about how society views and treats animals correlates to how they view and treat children. How many people’s pets have even become their child? Our culture of excess extends even to fat, waddling dogs wearing pet clothes. Watch this correlation with street children: how do we treat our stray animals? Quietly get them out of the way. Put them somewhere where I don’t have to see them or deal with them.
In Brazil, I’ve seen more people walking their goats than their dogs. Because goats give something back. They are productive members of society. Stray dogs are everywhere, and they act like cats. I’ve been chased by more cows than dogs–dogs here simply don’t care. They have been treated as invisible and left on their own for long enough that they believe it. Brazil is infamous for their favelas, their headlines of street children being shot and mistreated. Brazilians have simply learned how to not see.
Is one culture better than the other? One hiding the issue so they don’t have to see it, the other learning how not to see the issue in front of them?
