San Francisco is more humane!

I am proud to say that I am living in the most humane city in America. No wonder I love this place! The Humane Society of the United States ranked 25 cities by a dozen different criteria of how the population treats animals - number of vegetarian restaurants (good), doggies in the windows of pet stores (bad), fur for sale and on display (also bad), and state representatives who vote compassionately in the case of animals (very good), being some of the criteria - and found the most humane cities on the west coast. They're all my favorites too: 1) San Francisco, 2) Seattle and 3) Portland.

I am constantly in discussion with myself about my relationship to animals. Tonight I heard a dog get hit by a car, I didn't see it because I averted my eyes but it might be worse to hear something like that without a visual. Apparently he bounced off and went running off with his owner chasing after him. I was on a street corner and two people with dogs on leashes were holding them and their dogs were wrestling. Then they stopped and for some reason the owner of the larger dog let go of the leash. He was all riled up from the wrestling and hopping around on the sidewalk while the owner tried to get the leash.

I watched while waiting for the light to change, talking to a friend that was walking with me from the bus stop. It honestly didn't occur to me to try to get the leash but all of a sudden the dog started running toward the street, his owner trailing behind. I thought about lunging for the dog or the leash but I didn't move and before I knew it he was in the street, loping along like he was drunk, running right into oncoming traffic. People screamed and gasped, I turned around to avoid seeing it and BAM, I heard the whack. It was awful, really awful, and I found myself saying "a city is no place for an animal."

This weekend, I was putting around my apartment drinking coffee and I heard a little mewing sound. I love kitties and eagerly looked out the window hoping a kitty had come from somewhere to pay me a visit. What I found though was a mother cat and three fluffy kittens. They were hobbling around like they were just learning to walk. When I came down they scattered into a thicket of bamboo growing in the back. The mom jumped over the fence and watched me warily from the other side. She must have given birth to them here but they only just now came out. I immediately went out to get some cat food at the corner store and put it out. Momma cat ate it and then nursed her babies.

Then I started to wonder what my civic duty is to these animals. Clearly this cat needs to be neutered. And these babies need to be adopted or the city will have three more cats out there procreating in someone's back yard. After some calls, though, it's not as easy as just picking up the phone. This is where my love for animals is seriously tested. Am I willing to go to a store and rent a humane trap and maybe spend a week training the cat so that it will go into the trap? Then take it to the SPCA to be neutered and bring it back? In addition to capturing all the babies (they need to be delivered in separate humane cages) and delivering them to be adopted? I don't really have the time, but what choice do I have? I have to do my part to maintain the most humane city in America!

Letting go or playing God?

I chatted with a guy at the airport who was flying to put down his dog down (the dog was living with the guy’s ex-girlfriend). He was pretty bummed out about it and was having a bad day and a hard time at the airport to boot – about to miss his third flight that day. He said making the decision to end his dog’s life was really difficult and he was having trouble reconciling it even though the poor guy is old and suffering.

Walking quickly with him towards his gate, I tried to console him by telling him a theory that I heard – that pets live longer, despite failing health, because they’re loyal to us. They love us and know we need them so they stick around, out of loyalty. In nature, animals that are old, sick or dying, just lie down and die, or get eaten or run across the road and get hit by a car. The theory goes that they’re not attached to their bodies the way we are because life and death are natural.

He was not consoled so I continued to explain that it was actually his duty as the human guardian of his dog, to allow him to move on. I said he should just tell him, “it’s okay dude, I’ll be alright, you can go.” He chuckled at my use of the word dude, thanked me, and rushed to board his plane. After the conversation, though, I keep coming back to the same question. Why is it so easy for people to eat meat but so difficult to end the life of their pet?

While in LA, I mentioned at lunch that I was a vegetarian and someone questioned the fact that I still wear leather shoes. Even when I was veg the first time, for over five years, I wore leather shoes. I’ve been in need, for several years now, of a good pair of tall boots and now that I’m in the Bay Area, more than ever. As I shop, however, I find myself grappling with the idea that I can’t continue to be the animal lover that I want to be and still wear them on my feet. Can I? I don’t consider myself a fashionista but a well-made pair of Italian knee-high boots seem like something I can’t happily live without!

I just think it's ironic that we struggle so much with the morality of euthanasia, in animals and humans. Why does it seem like we have an easier time killing for food (or fashion) or for punishment (the death penalty) than we do with relieving a person or animal of pain?