Here's the thing about people that abuse animals and kids in general: they are dumbasses and you can't really argue with stupid or crazy.
After volunteering with rescue groups for animals all my life and having many friends who care for children at risk in one capacity or another I think I have become a little cynical. I have had cable guys tell me stories about going into big mansions and finding filthy dogs locked in the basement covered in their own excrement, and similar stories in other types of housing but the filthy, unfed animals are children. You start to wonder where to draw the line. I still get angry about people that abuse innocents but I can't take risks like breaking windows that might cause me to be put in jail and harm my own children and animals that depend on me to be there every day.
So I leave a note on a windshield, I notify the police and I tell every store within walking distance the license plate number of the vehicle. Sometimes, very rarely, it is just ignorance and you can fix it right away. Sometimes it is mental illness or drug abuse that causes people to make bad decisions. And sometimes it is just pure selfishness, in which case public humiliation seems to work better than anything else, hence the, "I'm going to take your picture and make sure you're on Eyewitness News tonight, jackass!" But if it is pure evil you really don't want to be on these people's target list and put yourself in harm's way, which is why you need to involve police.
I once rescued a dog from the side of the Bronx River Parkway, brought it to the police and waited with them until the owner came to pick it up. This dog was terrified and lost, but it trusted me and knew I was trying to help it. Did the owner express thanks and gratitude? No, he yelled at his dumb dog for running away again and peeled off without so much as a "Thanks!" It kinda dawned on me that I basically risked my life to save this dog only to put it back in the hands of the idiot that let it get into danger in the first place. Knowing all that I'd probably still do it, because I am a Weenie that feeds doomed foxes bologna.
I'm just not sure I'd want to have broken his window and possibly gotten shot for it.
Ah who am I kidding, I'm a New Yorker, I'd be the first one to mouth off and do what it took to save a child or an animal.
After volunteering with rescue groups for animals all my life and having many friends who care for children at risk in one capacity or another I think I have become a little cynical. I have had cable guys tell me stories about going into big mansions and finding filthy dogs locked in the basement covered in their own excrement, and similar stories in other types of housing but the filthy, unfed animals are children. You start to wonder where to draw the line. I still get angry about people that abuse innocents but I can't take risks like breaking windows that might cause me to be put in jail and harm my own children and animals that depend on me to be there every day.
So I leave a note on a windshield, I notify the police and I tell every store within walking distance the license plate number of the vehicle. Sometimes, very rarely, it is just ignorance and you can fix it right away. Sometimes it is mental illness or drug abuse that causes people to make bad decisions. And sometimes it is just pure selfishness, in which case public humiliation seems to work better than anything else, hence the, "I'm going to take your picture and make sure you're on Eyewitness News tonight, jackass!" But if it is pure evil you really don't want to be on these people's target list and put yourself in harm's way, which is why you need to involve police.
I once rescued a dog from the side of the Bronx River Parkway, brought it to the police and waited with them until the owner came to pick it up. This dog was terrified and lost, but it trusted me and knew I was trying to help it. Did the owner express thanks and gratitude? No, he yelled at his dumb dog for running away again and peeled off without so much as a "Thanks!" It kinda dawned on me that I basically risked my life to save this dog only to put it back in the hands of the idiot that let it get into danger in the first place. Knowing all that I'd probably still do it, because I am a Weenie that feeds doomed foxes bologna.
I'm just not sure I'd want to have broken his window and possibly gotten shot for it.Ah who am I kidding, I'm a New Yorker, I'd be the first one to mouth off and do what it took to save a child or an animal.
