Other Nations
Current mood: 
hopeful
Meet Karley, a cute, rambunctious, lovable six month old German Shepherd mix. She’s a heart-stealin’ sweetheart. Hobbies include chewing on her toys and escaping from her yard to the neighbor’s house when she’s left alone.
Or at least…they were. Karley was beaten to death Monday afternoon.
This is Karley, photo taken moments before her grief stricken family made the gut-wrenching decision to have her euthanized after their neighbor, Los Angeles Fire Chief Glynn Johnson beat Karley with his fists and a rock.
In front of a witness, this poor puppy had her skull fractured, her jaw broken, ear canal shattered, one eye punched out and irreparable brain damage from a beating sustained at the hands of a man who showed no mercy.
Karley is a victim of our times. An innocent. This story devastated me because it is happening every day. I am seeing a tend as our economy gets worse and people’s rage becomes more profound.
Each and every day, there is another story of senseless animal abuse.
Why?
Because most of the time, they can’t fight back. As more and more people feel a loss of control, unfortunately, crime and abuse are rising. Not just against animals, but children and the elderly.
It is my firm beleif however that anyone who can do what Johnson did to an animal, will one day do it to a person.
While Glynn Johnson is out on PAID leave pending an investigation, the truth is that many, many people see animals as our ‘dominion’ to quote a misunderstood line from the bible.
I investigated Johnson’s violent act against Karley and I have spoken to two of the officers involved in the case. I was not surprised to learn there has been a long standing feud between Johnson and Karley’s owners, the Toole family. This was a crime of opportunity.
Johnson doesn’t deny beating the puppy to death. He claims self defense yet the witness, Travis Briggs, who found Karly outside his home and was already taking her back to her own home says Johnson intervened, taking Karley away from him.
Briggs was reluctant to give him Karley, then watched helplessly, trying to stop the attack as it unfolded. I won’t go into all the savage details, they are available elsewhere.
The same week Karley was beaten to death, a helpless six-week-old kitten was shot in the head by 18 year old Jorge Contreras of Bell Gardens, Ca. I watched as this poor baby, head titled, one eye closed was rescued by Animal Cruelty officers. X rays showed a BB gun bullet lodged in her head. Miraculously, she survived.
As it’s a weekend and the Animal Shelter that has her is closed, I can’t find out the latest news. The vet there, Brad Brunskill is fostering her however and has vowed to save her life.
I could go on, but hopefully you get my point. I didn’t want to write this blog today.
I wanted to be funny A.J. but my broken heart will not let me ignore the countless, pointless attacks being waged on a big part of our world community.
It was Henry Beston who said: “For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete; gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings, they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth.”
Several words catch my attention every time I read this quote. Yes, they are Other Nations.
And what about ’senses we have lost or never attained.’ I am not sure which notion is worse, that we’ve lost them or we never had them.
We are supposedly the superior race and yet we prove, time and time again that we are still, in spite of outward progress, a race of barbarian tribes.
In this era of “New Birth of Freedom” with the election of Barak Obama, as a practicing buddhist, I will conitnue to pray for peace. And I will pray that this new freedom, that peace, will be extended to and embraced by all other nations.
Two legged and otherwise.
Aloha oe,
A.J.
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Currently listening : Imagine By John Lennon Release date: 2000-04-11  |
November 9th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
This just breaks my heart! I does need to be said AJ. You are so good at brining things to peoples attention that otherwise they might not see.
Now excuse me while I go hug my dog.
November 9th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Hi Jambrea, that’s exactly how I feel. The need to hug and thank my dog just for being my sweet girl.
xoxo
November 9th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
OMG that is so horrible…when I hear things like this I wonder what this world is coming to. Any kind of violence against children or animals is horrible. You said it well AJ as always putting the news out there for us and I thank you for doing this important blog even as you did not want to do it and I understand completely why you wouldnt. as I’ve said before you are a wonderful person as well as fantastic writer! thanks again for writing with such feeling AJ… your the best!
I need to go hug my cat as well and show her some love and affection.
sandra
November 9th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
OMG. I’m crying. It breaks my heart when people mistreat animals. I’m still greiving the passing of my dog (October ‘07) & on top of that my cat who went over the Rainbow Bridge this past October. It pains me that they’re gone and I wish I still had them around but age and illness precipitated the need to ease their suffering. I hope that man gets punished for his ill-treatment of an innocent being.
Where’s my tissues…
November 9th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
I never could understand why people treat other people and animals cruelly. It seems as if animals and weaker people are always the victims when someone stronger than them needs to vent their frustration out on someone/something. My own cat died 2 years ago (of supposedly natural causes) and I still miss her. Every time I see that commercial for ESPCA (sp?)I always start crying because of the abused animals they showed.
November 9th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
I had to hug my kitten all day after that. How can people be so cruel and to an animal that did nothing to them?
They say we are the smarted and most humane animals on the planet. Are they really sure about that?
Hugs Nita
November 10th, 2008 at 9:32 am
AJ! This is so sad. Some people are without a soul, truly.
Sophia
November 12th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Update: The kitten has miraculously survived and has found a new and loving home. She is a strong, feisty girl. Karley’s killer I hope will soon be charged with felony animal abuse. Thank God I live in a state that takes this type of crime very, very seriously.
November 14th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
It’s hard to believe that people can be so cruel yet they are. Here I am living in a house with four cats, two dogs and a rabbit because we can’t turn them away when they end up on our doorstep. and I hear about others who go out of their way to hurt or kill someone’s beloved pet. You wouldn’t believe the number of animals we’ve found after people have dropped them off near our property instead of taking them to a shelter where they would be cared for.
We’ve found homes for three kittens, six cats, two puppies and a wounded German Shepherd Dog ready to give birth. I shudder to think what would have become of them if left to fend for themselves. We’ve seen coyotes and fox out this way. Puppies and kittens wouldn’t have a chance.
We can only pray that things do get better and pray that those who would vent their violent emotions would do so in a constructive instead of destructive manner. When Kevin gets upset he chops wood, he doesn’t take out his anger on those smaller and weaker than himself.