Thursday, December 4, 2008

All Dogs Go To Heaven

The below video is of a heroic dog dragging another severely injured dog to the side of a busy Chilean highway... It left me speechless and with a lump in my throat...

Warning: Understand that it is graphic and very difficult to watch, especially for animal lovers...



For those of you interested in the English translation, the narrator essentially comments that "This is a very common problem, dogs are hit in the street all the time. This will continue until the stray dog population is brought under control."

No word on whether the little guy pulled through, odds are he didn't...

Now I know what some of you may be thinking, that my posting of this video is just a cheap stunt meant to draw an emotional response... fine, I'll plead guilty to that... but it is also a testament to the kindness and selflessness of our canine brethren... it proves (to me anyway) that altruism, a trait normally attributed to ambulating primates, can be found throughout the animal world...

You could argue that this dog shows more humanity than many of us... just last weekend crazed Christmas shoppers trampled a poor Wal-Mart greeter to death and then continued right on shopping... And last June in Hartford, Connecticut, a 78-year-old man was hit by a car and lay bleeding in the street while onlooking pedestrians and motorists did nothing to assist him.

Could I be guilty of anthropomorphising?

Sure... we tend to attach human emotion to things because that is our only way of relating a common experience... However, I don't think that makes what occurs in this video any less touching or heroic...

Dogs assist blind people in living normal lives... They sniff bombs and contraband and contribute to our safety... They help bring joy to the sick and dying in hospices... There are countless stories of them waking families and saving them from fires and other natural disasters... They rescue people in the wild... I could go on and on...

I own two wonderful dogs (or if you were to ask them, they own me) and seven delightfully loopy cats, each with their own distinct dispositions and quirks... they have enriched my life beyond explanation and I cannot imagine living without them...

Sadly I cannot rescue more... so in the spirit of the holidays, might I suggest making a donation to your local SPCA, or better yet, go down to your local shelter and find yourself a loyal friend for life... you won't be sorry...

And please spay or neuter your pets... so that millions more don't end up dead, astray, or in shelters...

"Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in." - Mark Twain

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3 comments:

boobookitty said...

OMG that was really hard to watch. But we need to be reminded of how things are different in other countries when it comes to animals. In some places, spaying/neutering is not always an option.
I am owned by two cats. If I had the time, I would love to have a dog be part of the family as well.

Harbinger Of Doom said...

Sadly, here in LA things aren't that different... we destroy 100,000 animals a year...

Anonymous said...

Oh jeez, way to get me all choked up.

I still know people who let their pets have kittens or puppies... I don't know what goes on in their heads. In what alternate reality is that a good idea?

And very fine contrast against the Walmart stampede... I've long said I prefer most animals to most people and there's a good reason why.