- by Megan Drake, care2.com
Depravity runs deep in many humans, and they usually indulge such instincts on the most vulnerable creatures.
From Colorado City, Arizona comes a case of animal abuse that will break your heart. A four-month-old kitten was found stuffed into a pipe up to his neck in wet cement, but not until he had been there approximately 18 hours. The cries were so pitiful the video is difficult to watch.
Andrew Chatwin was helping his friend Isaac Wyler build a shade shelter for his horses at the end of May. He set pipes in cement in the ground and left them overnight to harden. When he returned May 31, he heard the plaintive cries of a kitten coming from one of the pipes.
Chatwin and Wyler set about to rescue the kitten they eventually named Thomas. It took many more hours to cut the pipe, dig out the footing, remove the pipe off the hardened cement and gently chip away at the cold prison the kitty had been so cruelly forced into.
Thomas suffered severe injuries from his ordeal — including cement in his eyes — and was eventually euthanized several days after being brought to Best Friends Sanctuary in Kenab, Utah. It isn’t difficult to imagine Thomas’ suffering when you see the photo of him struggling in his cement prison with only his head and one paw free to move. When local authorities wouldn’t investigate the cruelty, the rescue attempt was uploaded to YouTube on July 1.
Chatwin claims this is not the first animal abuse case he and Wyler have seen in Colorado City. They attribute it to Warren Jeffs, a convicted felon and head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) who is currently in prison serving a life sentence plus 20 years for sexual assault on two underage girls he “married.” Chatwin left the church 13 years ago, Wyler 4 years ago. Both say there have seen numerous dead animals thrown on their properties, which they attribute to followers of Jeffs and FLDS.
Chatwin described the initial reaction by local authorities to his animal cruelty report during a Right This Minute.com interview. “[The city marshal] … kind of chuckled and laughed a little bit and then he said if it was up to him he’d just throw dirt over it [the cat].” Chatwin also said he and Wyler believe this act of animal cruelty was a message sent to Isaac Wyler by the FLDS church. He says he has documented more than a dozen dead animals found in Wyler’s horse corral and truck. They believe because they are outspoken against polygamy, they have been targeted by FLDS members for this type of harassment.
A Care2 petition has been started urging the Colorado City sheriffs to “thoroughly and seriously investigate the case.” Currently there are more than 12,000 signatures. Please consider adding your name to it.
Best Friends is offering a $5,000 reward for anyone with information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrator of this heinous crime. If anyone has such information please contact Mohave (Arizona) County Sheriff’s Office at 800-526-1911.
Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/kitten-buried-alive-in-cement.html#ixzz2PwJgHelO
1 comment
Albert Einstein understood that a problem cannot be solved by using the same thinking that created it:
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
The judeo.christian tradition has set into place a sure foundation, dominion, for encouraging animal abuse, such as that suffered by Thomas:
“The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.'” genesis
It is not possible to effect a change towards compassion with petitions, as they are a tool of dominion, provided to create an illusion of protest, which does not challenge the status quo. It is not possible to effect a change as long as the paradigm of dominion remains entrenched in religious doctrine and the public consciousness. It is dominion that created the problem of unfettered animal abuse which infests judeo.christian nations… According to the logic of Einstein, it is not this tradition which will solve the problem of animal abuse.
The more compassionate tradition of the Jain religion of India, has influenced hinduism, with the wisdom of ahimsa: reverence for the lives of ALL living beings: animal and human. The semitic religions have not had the wisdom to consider the merits of ahimsa, as they insist on allowable slaughter. Ahimsa, which is both a religious and secular principle, considers compassion from the point of view of the intended victim, not the beneficiary of exploitation:
“All beings are fond of life, hate pain, like pleasure,
shun destruction, like life, long to live. To all life
is dear.” Jain Acharanga Sutra
“All things breathing, all things existing, all living beings whatever, would not be slain or treated with violence, or insulted, or tortured or driven away. This is the pure unchanging eternal law, which the wise ones who know the world have proclaimed…” Jain Acharanga Sutra
With these sutras, it would not be possible to cement a tiny kitten in place to die.. but dominion with its fear and dread over animal kind does not prohibit such actions, despite the half hearted attempts at compassion, slaughter and exploitation for human benefit must be allowed.
As we protest the cruelty of this act, consider that it differs only in technique from the cruelty of the shelter system and the mainstream animal organizations, who all insist on the compassion of murdering homeless animals: some 5 million every year. Those who cherish the right to kill and exploit harmless animals take their cue from genesis.
Those with reverence for life, such as the Chatwin and Wyler, who made every effort to help Thomas, would do well to consider the price paid by animals for affiliation with religions that encourage violence, as noted by a colleague:
Ahimsa is the most logical belief to protect all creatures.
Religions that support cruelty to animals in any form, should be discarded as nonsense.