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Tennessee's rural families trying to care for too many pets
Submitted by Carole Borges on Sat, 2007/06/30 - 5:54am.
"To fight fleas and ticks, he has used a folk remedy. A tobacco chewer, he saves the juice and sprays it on the lawn." Sometimes creativity and home remedies are the only things that allow people living in rural areas without free spay clinics to help an ever increasing population of stray or abandoned animals. "Tina Churchwell, head of the humane society in McNairy County, where Finger and Selmer are situated, calls 12 dogs her own and has set up a makeshift shelter at her home, kennels holding 22 other dogs she hopes might be adopted. The society is searching for money to build a proper shelter on land the county has offered, but community support is lacking, Ms. Churchwell said." The Humane Society does what it can, but too few vets and a population that can't afford to pay for their services is creating a potentially serious health situation. Tammy Rouse, the Applachian coordinator for volunteer service has her hands full. “It’s like putting a Band-Aid on a gushing artery,” she said. “Spay-neuter has to go hand in hand with education and legislation.” It sounds like the only thing that could turn this situation around would be to have a team of vets and volunteer assistants form a group similar to "Doctors Without Borders". There probably aren't enough of these here in Tennessee, so it would have to be an effort that would attract vets and vet students from all over the country. A kind of tent meeting of professionals that could set up for a week or two. There is a long history of tent revivals here. Why not use this old fashioned idea to save the souls and lives of all the unwanted dogs and cats in areas that are too far from vet services or owned by people too poor to afford them? This would of course take a combination of county, state, and federal monies. Fat chance of that. We've gone over this territory before, and some people will say there should be laws to stop poor people from having animals, but that is about as logical as expecting poor people to not have babies. Education is always the best answer of course, but in the meantime the crisis is growing. It's really sad to know that local problems that only affect a few rural people can't be resolved because most of our state and federal money is going to large causes like homeland security. We are slowly becoming a bankrupt nation. Little is being done to improve employment in rural areas. Domesticated animals are low on our priority list in spite of the fact that dogs and cats have been our loyal best friends for generations. In cases like this one it will take more than local resources to get the situation under control. Fat chance of that. |
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The staff at the Humane Society of the Tennessee Valley tell me that other parts of the country look at the South as virtually third world when it comes to how we treat animals. Unfortunately, there's too much truth in this view.
When it comes to uneducated poor people too often we blame them rather than trying the three-fold approach of intervention, crisis management and then education. We lament the problems caused by the poor, but too often we don't realize that they are also us. Our society is one whole, no matter how much we wish otherwise. To turn our backs on people who are ignorant is to turn our backs on ourselves.
Lately, I've noticed a creeping trend to simply judge people with problems then disenfranchise them. Those who are not keeping up with our partially affluent and educated society find little sympathy these days, and this is a big error on our part.
"What ye do unto the least of these...you do unto me." So many Christians have forgotten that warning. It is a strong message to remember that the body of humanity is interconnected. It is one. To turn away from solving problems, just because the people are deemed ignorant or causing the rest of us discomfort or expense, is foolish.
Dogs and cats, the ignorant and poor. They are us and we are them. We're all in the same life raft--planet Earth. The last thing we need is for rhose who are journeying with us in that big blue boat to go mad from any cause. Because in the end, they will rock the boat. They will rock the boat.
As I've heard that the bluer states actually know how to spay and neuter their pets. Something to think about the next time you hear (mostly Republican) politicians brag about how they are "our" type of people--as we will soon hear from Fred Thompson.
Carole, you make an excellent argument, but in our day-to-day lives, there's little one can do. Right now, my neighborhood sounds like a war zone, from all the slack-jawed morons in the area exercising their patriotic freedoms, including the freedom to rob everyone else of their freedom to just live in peace. I'd be surprised if more than 50% of them know what July 4th commemorates. I called the sheriff about the same problem last Saturday night, when it was still June.
Approaching such people with outstretched arms is not an option. Most of us work passionately to change the political powers that have perpetuated the living conditions here since the Civil War. And we support local, non-political groups of various causes and organizations as best we can. What else should we be doing?
I came across this article and thought y'all might find it interesting.
Link...
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