*WARNING*GRAPHIC CONTENT* (This poem is about cruelty to animals. This is sadly a true story. The police are not providing animal control services, though they get county funding to do so. There is a small understaffed & underfunded nonprofit clinic here but our only vet is away for a family emergency. My wife & I volunteer to foster dogs since the clinic legally can’t house any animals, and there is no shelter on island. The police department have a dozen empty kennels they are supposed to use & are funded to use, but they turn people away who call about abandoned and stray animals. We had 18 foster dogs when I left the farm last night, now we have 19. I wish we had 20. So it goes…)
(Written June 11, 2019)
I drove a car last night
for the first time
in over a year
and when I got where I was going
my eyes welled with tears.
I drove a car last night
and my eyes cannot unsee
the sight of mans inhumanity
that I saw as I walked
up to a near-lifeless dog
with half of his brains
dangling from his head
left there to die
but still far from dead.
I drove a car last night
though my conscience
makes me ride a bike
but when a frantic man called
appalled at what he’d seen
I grabbed a knife
and got in the car.
I drove a car last night
and it took all of my might
to do what had to be done
and for the first time
in a very long time
I wished that I had a gun.
I drove a car last night
and the dog still had life in his eyes
and I was thinking
how we could get
back to the farm
and stabilize him
but he had more brains
out than in
and if this isn’t a sin
there is no God.
I drove a car last night
because the police came
and saw the condition of this dog
and thought nothing of the sight
as they filed a report
about a dog bite on the son
of the man who ran home
and got a knife,
not to take the life
of the dog
but to act out scenes
from Hollywood horror movies.
I drove a car last night
and I’m sick to my stomach now
just thinking about the sight
that I can’t unsee
but I’m grateful
that I was able to free
this poor, poor, precious dog
from such pain and misery
no longer tied
to a three foot chain
no longer owned
by people so inhumane
no longer lacking food
and lacking love
I buried him
at midnight last night
and planted a tree above him
and he’ll nourish the roots,
trunk, branches and limbs.
I drove a car last night
because I had to euthanize one dog
and rescue his sister
a beautiful blue nose
who kept licking my arm
on the way home
but before I left
the scene of the crime,
the traumatized Samaritan
who called my wife and I
gave me a hug, thanked me
and said he’d called the police
weeks ago
because they get paid to run
animal control
but they said
“leave the dogs where they are”
that is, chained up
and abandoned
in an empty yard
and though this neighbor
struggles to pay his bills
he visited the abandoned dogs
every single day
and filled their food and water
and he ran out of his house
to what he called
the most awful screams
he’d ever heard
and as he got there,
the father of the boy
who was bitten by the dog
on the three foot chin
in the empty yard
dropped the knife
and didn’t say a word.
I drove a car last night
because where I live
the police take money
from the county budget
to provide animal control
but don’t do a anything
to control animals,
don’t take in abandoned animals
and apparently don’t put animals,
chopped up and suffering
with more than half of their brains hanging out,
out of their misery.
I drove a car last night
and I’m not mad at the man
who attacked this poor dog,
maybe morally he has a right
to kill the dog, maybe not,
I’m not here to argue that,
I’m just sad for the man
and sadder for his son
because if the man got a gun
and shot the dog
the dog would have died instantly
but I’m sad that the man
wanted to see the dog suffer,
and how much pain
must the man be in in his life
to want to see any creature suffer
and I’m not mad that the police
didn’t charge this man
with animal cruelty
in the first degree, a felony
in the state of Hawaii,
I’m angry that the police,
who can’t try to blame
raw emotion
like the father can,
saw this dog
with more than half
his brains hanging out
and left him there
to die a slow, painful,
cruel, lonely death.
I drove a car last night
and on my ride home,
with a lifeless body
in the trunk
and a beautiful dog
riding next to me
on her way to freedom
I wondered how a man
could be so cruel
and how the police
could be so cruel
and then I thought about
the world we live in
where cruelty to humanity
is something we all see on TV,
how bombs fall
overseas, constantly
and how the police kill
black and brown people
with impunity
and we’ve all seen it
for so long
we’ve all grown up
hearing war songs
and learning that violence
is always the only answer
to any perceived wrongs,
like a dog
on a three foot chain
abandoned in an empty yard,
scared and scarred
from abuse and neglect
biting a child that steps
into the tiny bubble
that the dog exists in.
I drove a car last night
and right now, all I can do
is hold my dogs tight
and fight for a better world
where neither man nor beast
is treated inhumanly.
soitgoes1984 