I have to admit that there is a reason I haven’t been writing. I’ve been a bit disillusioned with the human race lately. I think, sometimes, that we treat one another badly enough. But when we start treating animals cruelly, then how can we claim to be higher up intellectually?

I’ll share my experiences in the last month and you’ll understand where I’m coming from, I hope.

I was watching a special on one of the local news channels. They were doing a special on dog fights that have cropped up in Phoenix lately. These are the dog fights where people raise pitbulls, rottweilers, and other dogs to fight one another in rings while the onlookers bet on who will “win” (live).

They then panned to a local humane society who specializes in rescuing fight dogs and dogs that are used in “training” fight dogs. The dogs that are used in training are puppies. Puppies. These cruel humans toss a puppy in a cage with a dog that has been beaten, underfed, and abused and let that attack dog go at it. They showed a puppy that had been nearly mutilated by a fight dog.

It broke my heart.

The next day, my brother and I were running errands. I dropped him off at his car and headed home. He called me a little later and told me that he was glad I hadn’t continued on with him. He had seen an act that would have torn me apart and that had made him weep.

He was driving over a hill here in town. It’s well traveled by locals and can be quite busy. As he’s driving over, he watches a truck pass him in the opposite lane that seems to be dragging something behind. As the truck passes, he notices that it’s a dog that is tied to the truck and trying to get up on it’s feet and keep up. My brother said it was the size and shape of a boxer. Cars are honking, people are yelling, and finally the truck stops. My brother says that he didn’t stay around to find out what happened because he was too upset.

Two days after that, Warren was working at the petting zoo owned by some family friends. He was in charge of the goats, llamas, and piglets. He noticed a young man that was harrassing the llamas. He asked him to stop. The guy kept harrassing them. He was being abusive towards these beautiful animals. Finally, he had to be told that if he didn’t stop, security would be called.

Another two days passed and I’m talking to my sister about these incidences. She tells me about something that had happened that morning as she headed into work.

I live in a fairly rural area and we have an abundance of wildlife around. It is not uncommon to see deer, elk, coyotes, skunks, rabbits, gophers, and, sometimes, javalinas, bears, mountain lions, and wolves.

As my sister drove into town from her home, she saw a skunk crossing the road. Most people would avoid running over a skunk. If not for humanitarian reasons (who would really want to kill an animal???), then for the simple fact that your automobile will stink for days because of the kill. My sister, however, told me that she watched a car purposely swerve to hit the skunk and kill it. Purposely. Why? Why would someone do that?

I’m wondering about the evil out there. I’m wondering about people who intentionally put animals in harms way and work at systematically or instantly destroying them.

I don’t understand that type of mentality.

I’m disappointed in my fellow humankind. It seems we’ve lost a special part of our humanity.