Recently a neighbour of ours moved out. The sad thing is that he left his two dogs behind. A pair of cross-breed German Shepherd dogs. For a couple of days they wandered about the neighbourhood, a woman who lives a few doors away and my mum would feed them.
Three days after they were left to fend for themselves, people from the Veterinary Services Department came to take them away. We don't live in a dog friendly neighbourhood. The thing is, though the official story is that dogs who are taken away are put to sleep - via injection. The unofficial story is far different.
Most of these dogs who are abandoned and the many strays usually meet quite a grisly end. They are clubbed to death and buried in a pit, sometimes while they are still alive.
When my mother saw the two dogs being taken away - their names are 'Boy' and 'Girl', she decided that she had to do something. So she and my father made several phone calls to find out where they had been taken.
To cut a long story short, my parents were told that they could get the dogs back for a certain amount of money (RM500). So they met the people who had taken Boy and Girl away that morning, paid the cash, got the pair out and sent them to a shelter. They have since been re-homed.
When my mum came home after settling the matter, she told me that she was glad she had gotten both the dogs out, even though she had to go to all that trouble and part with her money. Mum said the place where Boy and Girl had been taken to was terrible - a huge rubbish heap in a very deserted location. She said there was a huge pit there and she shuddered to think what would have happened to both canines if she and dad had not gotten them out.
While they were still in the shelter, mum paid for their monthly upkeep, some family members also chipped in. Well ever since then, we have been called dog lovers. Many people who heard about what happened wondered why my parents went to all that trouble for two dogs and then put it down to the fact that we love dogs.
The thing is we don't fit the bill of being animal lovers, until recently we never had pets. Now there's Lexie of course, our little teddy bear of a canine who will be a year old this month. Mum and dad did what they did because they are humanitarians.
A humanitarian treats both people and animals with respect. Being a humanitarian means treating others the way you would want to be treated.
It means not discriminating against people for whatever economic function they are performing, they are doing their jobs, earning an honest living, respect that. It also means treating your hired help with dignity and respect. Because they are here to do a job, not be your slaves. That era is over.
It is shocking - the way many people out there treat their foreign maids and restaurant workers. The headlines and news stories usually brand these tyrants as animals - are animals cruel? They only kill for food and to protect themselves, not for perverse pleasure. I hope at some point people writing these stories see the light and stop insulting the animals.
The Charity Fairy......
Being a humanitarian also does not mean doing charity for the good of your soul, kissing orphans at Xmas and such the way politicians do. Reminds me of a certain incident, this woman whose husband was on trial (A very high profile murder trial), you would think that she would be very worried and stressed right? I mean her husband could go to the gallows.......nah but she didn't seem very perturbed by it.
She was more interested in getting publicity for the fact that she and her friends had donated an old television set to an old folks home. So I humoured her by passing the said news item over to my editor. It wasn't enough that her hubby was making the headlines every day, she wanted in on it too.......with her old TV set no less!
My editor being the nice obliging guy that he is, humoured her, it came out as a three paragraph news brief. She wasn't happy, called up the next day wanting to know why the article was so short, why was there no photo of them handing over the TV to the old folks.
Would you call her a humanitarian? Many people like her think they are you know, bundling up their old rags and faulty appliances to be dumped off at some charity home or another. Never mind whether the said charity needs stuff like that or not.
Then again there are those who will donate their organs to complete strangers, risk their lives to save more lives............some angels have no wings, but big hearts, and sometimes they walk on all fours and have a swishy tale too.
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People these days will anything for not only publicity but money too, so much for moral values in this world.
It is a mark of how not evolved our society is.