Where the week before last was one of hope and spreading joy and love, last week was completely the opposite.
Many stories cross my path and land on my desk and I generally don’t have any emotion when dealing with it. When it comes to children and animals however, I sometimes have to deal with an unknown rage that I have to battle to keep in control.
Last week one of those rage triggering stories came my way. A heart breaking story of a pit bull terrier that was chained up and left to die of starvation. When the SPCA reached him he was still alive, but could barely walk. This poor animal was left for more than two months without food or water. Without anyone talking to him, without feeling loved, without being stroked or played with.
This poor soul, who was dubbed Asha by the SPCA inspectors, died a lonely, hungry, cold death.
Asha is a Hindi word that means hope, but sadly for this poor furby (fur baby) there was no chance on hope.
Though our brave inspectors along with the SPCA vet, tried everything in their power to save Asha, they had to put him to sleep due to severe organ damage. Keeping him alive would’ve only meant more pain and suffering.
Being a …. What’s the best word to describe me …. Um …. Being an animal fanatic this story broke me. Anyone who knows me knows how much love and effort I put into my animals. Especially my cat, Oliver and dog-child, Kasper the bull terrier.
Imagining either one of them having to go through what poor Asha had to go through, to imagine the pain and loneliness, the helplessness. To imagine what his face looked like while people were walking past him…ignoring him. Ignoring his plea for help and food…that breaks me and drives me to irrecoverable sobbing and a rage that is unthinkable.
What is wrong with people? Do they not have the brain capacity to differ from wrong or right? Could passers-by not see with their own eyes that Asha needed help. That her OWN HUMANS left her to die of starvation. In my eyes they are not worth being called human. They are the… never mind… maybe a bit harsh… but their mother’s should’ve swallowed them!
The woman who called the SPCA said it was her son’s dog. Her son who lives and works in Cape Town and only visits occasionally. When she was asked why she didn’t look after the dog, she replied by saying that she was away for two months and didn’t ask anyone to look after the dog. WTF??? Who’s mind works like that? What kind of a monster’s heart beats like that? How on earth does she sleep at night? How is this okay???
The scary truth is that it is ‘okay’ to a lot of people out there. Animals to them means absolutely jack sh*t. They don’t care if it has 1 000 babies in its lifetime or get hit by a car and has to drag its body back home. This kind of … hideous person (for the lack of a better word) thinks it’s okay to take a puppy and beat it to death in front of children…It’s these kind of people that make me sick to my stomach. It’s them that make me want to kill.
I’m beyond furious and if it’s the last thing I do, I will do everything I can to see justice served here.
I can’t help imagining the woman tied up to a pole with a chain and left without food or water for two months… or until her organs cave in and she dies.