Saturday, May 17, 2008

Progress or Regress?

As I read through the comments to my letter, I couldn't help but wonder - as we progress as a country, are we, as human, regressing? Whatever happened to compassion, humanity (the word 'human' is in it) and kindness? Has progression made us unfeeling and intolerant?

Some would rather the cats be cull
ed and killed than for their cars to be rested on. The cats bleed like we do, the cars are just metal. For the sake of the metal, some chose to be cruel. In case some of us don't know, cats culled are sent to be killed. The nicer term some people used is "removed". The culled cats are not sent to some shelters FYI. Maybe using a nicer term makes the complainants feel a lot less guilty about indirectly murdering.

As a caregiver myself, I try my best to sterilise, feed and care for these homeless - many whom were abandoned by ourselves, and we're debating the 'root' of the problem. Occasionally, I get rude stares but mostly, my neighbours have been nice and supportive.

Those who hate cats want them off the streets because they think cats are nothing but nuisance and, they scratch their cars. Those who love all lives wish the cats do not need to live outside, suffer and be unnecessarily devoided their rights to live, and instead have loving homes. The cat haters and the cat lovers - we have the same ultimate goal - not to have so many strays but our methods of achieving the goal are different. Culling is not going to work and is inhumane. Sterilisation, applied cooperatively and long term, will. Like it or not, there are no
quick fixes to a long standing issue. If we truly want the goal to realise, we have to work together, in a humane manner.

It's ok not to like cats, honestly. But it's not ok to hurt them just because you don't like them. You can just leave them alone and I'm sure the cats will appreciate.

As with any situations
, there always will be black sheep. Some charitable organisations have failed us but does that stop us from being charitable? The answer for most - no.

1 comment:

auntie p said...

I'd only saw your online letter yesterday, and I really like it, especially your analogy of giving money to the beggar. It's such a basic analogy at the most fundamental level (I'm sure no one will think of imposing a fine on anyone who gives money to beggars) that I hope it will shut those people up and make the DJs feel ashamed for what they've said over the airwaves.

Kudos to you for writing in. If it's the right thing to do and benefits another living being, just keep doing it, regardless of what others may think or say. Thanks for being such an inspiration to some of us. :)