RANT: Arizona Anything But Humane?

For a state now infamous for its draconian and, many say, downright racist anti-immigrant laws, Arizona is again in the news for all the wrong reasons. This time it has to do with a recovering heroin addict who took his little cat into the Arizona Humane Society in Phoenix to be treated, only for the little thing to be euthanized because he could not afford the $400 to have her treated...

The story from Google News/ Associated Press:

PHOENIX (AP) — Animal lovers threatened to pull donations to an animal rescue group and the public flooded the agency with scathing comments and calls after a man's cat was euthanized when he couldn't afford its medical care, prompting the Arizona Humane Society to go into damage-control mode Wednesday.

The group has hired a publicist, removed dozens of comments on its Facebook page and directed a team of five volunteers to respond to the overwhelming calls and emails it has received since The Arizona Republic published a weekend story about Daniel Dockery and his 9-month-old cat, Scruffy.

Dockery, a 49-year-old recovering heroin addict, told the Phoenix newspaper that he took Scruffy to a Humane Society center on Dec. 8 because she had a cut from a barbed-wire fence, an injury that he described as non-life-threatening. The agency said it would cost $400 to treat Scruffy, money he didn't have.

The Humane Society cited policy when it declined to accept a credit card over the phone from Dockery's mother in Michigan or to wait for her to wire the money. The staff said if he signed papers surrendering the cat, Scruffy would be treated and put in foster care, he said.

Instead, Scruffy was euthanized several hours later.

Dockery told the Republic that he was devastated.




Of course, the Arizona Human Society has gone into PR overdrive now that it has been flooded with hundreds of complaints and plenty of outrage from animal lovers.

What they did to that little cat was outrageous and unacceptable. No wonder Dockery says he is devastated.

But this is not a uniquely 'Arizona thing.' This is all too typical of so many so-called 'animal protection' societies all over the world. They claim to want to protect animals, but too often get caught up in their own dogma and over-eagerness to euthanize animals left, right and centre. They hide behind vapid, meaningless words like 'animal safety' and 'quality of life'.

Ironically, they so often do such good work, which makes their callous acts all the more unbearable and unacceptable.

Too often animal societies act like the final word, the all-knowing God-like experts, who hold sway over the lives and deaths of little innocent animals. 

I'm frankly sick and tired of it.

The Arizona Human Society should be ashamed of itself. As should so many of their ilk, who play Old Testament God with the lives of animals day in and day out.

Do you get my point?