In response to “Animals before people?” I can say for myself why I put animals before people. Most people have made their own problems with the choices they have made, key word being choices.
Animals, especially domesticated ones, are pretty much at our mercy. If they have become “pests” or “vermin” it is because of neglect on our part. Animals that are not spayed or neutered only add to this problem, and, of course, so many animals are abandoned. Animals can’t go out and get jobs, they don’t get SSI or welfare, can’t go to Prado Day Care. I feel that they are the truly innocent, they don’t start wars or commit crimes, they just need basic care and want to exist peacefully. If they are a problem it is because we have created it.
The lazy, barbaric mentality that justifies killing the cats rather than controlling/improving the situation by spaying and neutering speaks volumes. People are not better than animals in my opinion.
Heidi McElroy
Los Osos
This article appears in Apr 28 – May 5, 2005.