Every Single Time

Every time I see a news story like Firefighter faces jail for killing dogs, I lose a tiny bit more of my faith in the general decency of humanity.

Not, as one might suppose, because of the revelation about yet another person out there doing something horrible to an animal: I already know there are such people. No, it's because every single time there's the same response. Quoting the article, "We had people say they should do to him what he's done to the dogs."

Every time. That article a couple of years ago that was making the rounds about the people dragging stray dogs behind boats to catch sharks [which turned out to be something like a decade out of date and only semi-accurate]? Something like 20% of the comments, those exact words.

Do people really think an appropriate punishment for shooting your pet dogs for no good reason is to be strung up and shot yourself? For dragging dogs behind a boat to be eaten by sharks to . . . be keelhauled and left to be eaten by sharks?

I thought we were mostly beyond the idea of an eye for an eye as appropriate punishment, as it serves only a bloodthirsty need for revenge and doesn't act as an effective deterrent nor support a program of rehabilitation. But hurt an animal or a child, and they come crawling out of the woodwork howling for your bloody, visceral, painful torture and death.

Every single time.

I weep for humanity.