Honorable David Lansford
Mayor
City Hall
321 N Connelly
Clovis , NM
88101
(575)769-7828 FAX: 575-763-9227
321 N Connelly
(575)769-7828 FAX: 575-763-9227
Dear Mayor Lansford:
I am writing to you in response to what
I have read about the recent tragedy in your city involving the dog Diesel, who
has been condemned to death. I know I am intruding on your time, but in this
age when we were all so instantaneously connected, I believe that if we know
about and feel for something, we have an ethical duty to speak up.
I do not know the facts involving the
hapless Diesel’s fate other than what I have read on the Internet, and so I
will not pretend to know them. But even if the worse of what I have read is
true, what I have to offer is even more relevant.
I will defer to others better prepared than
I to offer the legal arguments to spare Diesel his death, e.g., he is only a
dog doing what dogs do, this was an Act of God, etc. What I have to offer
really has nothing to do with pleading for his life for his sake. It concerns
compassion for those people who would blame themselves for an accident, an act of
God; compassion for those who are involved in the killing chain after the
accident, and compassion for those in your city and around the world who know
of Diesel’s fate, but are helpless to do anything, and suffer as the result.
As for my first argument, we humans are unique in the animal
kingdom in that we instinctively at first blame someone else (e.g., the dog)
for our own acts, even accidents. Sooner or later, we will realize our own
mistakes, even though they were accidents. If the dog is dead, we have no one
left to blame, and so that guilt will be locked up inside of us forever. But if
the dog lives, one day, for whatever it is worth, we will forgive the dog, and
that very act will start the healing process for us to forgive ourselves, maybe
for our mistakes, but more importantly for being human. And with the dog dead,
we are then burdened by two layers of guilt. I have lived through this myself,
so I know.
As for the second argument, I actually feel compassion for
those people in our municipalities assigned the job of killing innocent
creatures simply for their natural behavior. (This is why some even mistreat
the hapless condemned animals, i.e., to give themselves justification for their
acts: “look at the dog now: he/she is vicious,” they always seem to say, like
reading from a script.) This pattern of the entire chain of events leading to
the killing, starting with our “Dangerous Dog Acts” or discriminatory
breed-specific legislation and ending with the dog’s death, reinforces the
pathways in their brains to seek vengeance instead of truth and justice,
pathways that apply to everything in their lives, and not just their 9-5 jobs
of killing dogs simply for doing what dogs do. I realize that they act in the
interest of public safety, but surely there are better pathways in our acts and
brains to achieve that and fairness, too. I admire Supreme Court Justice Robert
Alito simply because he understands these things about our being custodians of
animals and is not afraid to find some reason in the law to show compassion,
often as a lone dissenter, in all the animal-related cases going to the court.
As for my third argument, if Diesel is killed, some in your
city, and even more beyond, will feel satisfaction that punishment has been
served. If that is the case, they are the ones to be pitied, not Diesel. But many,
many more in your city and far beyond will suffer as the result, helpless
bystanders in a multiple tragedy. I really don’t think that the good citizens
of your city want that. Most of us have never been to Clovis Clovis
That is all I can offer. I wish there was more to say to save
Diesel and the many other animals we humans treat as property instead of
living, feeling creatures whose lives have as much meaning to them as our lives
have to us.
On behalf of Diesel and those humans who would benefit by
sparing his life, thank you for reading this letter.
Sincerely,
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