Calling the guy who did this

an asshole would be an insult to that most reviled of orifices:

As was reported in the Sunday Guardian [28.4.2008], some fucked up piece of shit threw lye on two rottweilers kept by a 74 year old man as pets and protection. The eight year old dog may die from her burns and the six year old was partially blinded. It would seem that the perpetrator (allegedly a neighbour) has a bit of a history of pelting the dogs with stones.

You don’t need to be an animal rights activist, nor even have pets to be appalled at the heinousness of this crime. And yes cruelty to animals is a crime. I never fail to be astonished at the number of Trinidadians who don’t know that.

I have dogs. I’ve always had dogs. I may not have known all I know now about their care – but I have never intentionally mistreated an animal. At a point in time, we had to move to an apartment. My mother called the T.T.S.P.C.A for the dog we had and her two or three remaining pups. I was young, I knew I could do nothing, yet up to this day I am still haunted by the thought that Sparky and her children more than likely were put down; Trinidad isn’t noted for pet adoptions. I know she probably thought she was doing the right thing, but honestly I still hold that against my mother. So I refuse to even try to understand why someone would deliberately hurt and animal. I know about the cycle of abuse and how it can manifest itself in children and as a result the adults they become, but I am also absolutely convinced that some people just like to cause pain to other creatures. I think this guy is one of them.

At the risk of sounding like an antisocial deviant, I am more disturbed by seeing homeless animals than homeless people. People can manage. They can ask for food and shelter, be understood and assisted. And how many people do you know have been abandoned because they no longer ‘serve their purpose’?

I have never beaten my pets. They were housebroken and well trained without me once having to lift a hand, shoe or broomstick at them. I actually got into a fight with a cousin once because she hit one of my dogs - she can definitely say she knows what the brush part of a broom tastes like now.

And you can be sure as hell that if anyone were to throw lye on my fuzzies, s/he would get that back and more.