Imagine this scenario. You buy a house in a nice neighborhood where you can raise your family in safety and comfort. It’s peaceful and serene. You bring with you your neutered cat and spayed dog, both of whom you keep indoors so as not to bother anyone. Your neighbor, however, doesn’t see things quite the way you do. They have a female cat that roams the neighborhood unspayed, delivering litter after litter of kittens year after year. And when the population gets to be too much, your neighbor blocks the entrance to the house, leaving the cats outside in the cold to fend for themselves. If they live, they live. If they die, they die. It’s all part of natural selection, right? Except that, in the course of their lives, no matter how short they may be, they too are producing litter after litter of kittens. Of course, these desperate animals find their way to you and you cannot bear to see them suffer. So you give them some table scraps to start, eventually doing what is humane and setting out a bowl of food every night, perhaps even building them a small shelter so that they can be somewhat protected from the cold and rain. And one by one, as your economic situation allows, you get them spayed and neutered in an effort to try to stop the booming population. You get them vaccinated so that they may stay somewhat healthy and not spread sickness and disease among the colony. You single-handedly take on the enormous responsibility of caring for these poor animals, not because they are your pets, but because they need help and your conscience will not let you sleep at night while they sit out in the cold, hungry and suffering. You know you didn’t cause the problem. Your animals were spayed and neutered, not reproducing unchecked. Your animals were fed and cared for, not left to starve and freeze. But you know that these animals depend on someone, anyone, to have the compassion to set out a bowl of food or leave the garage door open a little so that they can seek shelter. You know you are doing the right thing and you believe, foolishly, that the people of your neighborhood who proclaim to be your friends, see things the same way. You are wrong. Caring for these cats makes them yours in the eyes of your neighbors and having these cats now makes you a hoarder and an outcast in your neighborhood. It makes you subject to harassment and sleepless night after sleepless night because these same neighbors have now set traps to capture the cats and murder them. They even go so far as to tell you that the cats are “fair game” because you have failed to control their travels. You have failed to teach the cats to read maps and respect property lines. You have failed to teach these cats to clean up after themselves when they urinate and defacate and to never do that in anyone’s garden but yours. You have failed to teach these cats to ignore their very basic hunting instincts because there are people in this world who attach more importance to the life of a songbird than the life of a cat. Shame on you. When the harassment gets to be too much and you no longer feel safe in your serene and peaceful neighborhood, you call the police. After all, they are there to serve and protect. And when the Columbia County Sheriff’s Department shows up at your door you are shocked to find that he isn’t there to protect you at all. He doesn’t hand you any kind of gratitude that you are doing a service to the community by caring for these stray animals. He doesn’t hand you any kind of reassurance that he will handle the problem and that the people who created the problem will be held accountable. What he hands you is a $228 ordinance violation ticket for animal-at-large and a 15 minute lecture on why your neighbors are upset and why you should keep your animals under control. What he hands you is more frustration, more injustice and more tears. What he hands you is unfathomable, unfair and unbelievable. All the while, the neighbors who created the problem by not taking responsibility for their one female cat so long ago, watch out the window, gossiping on the phone to the fellow neighbors about how the police were at your house and what a terrible person you are.
Do you think this doesn’t happen? It’s happening on Spring Street in Pardeeville as we speak. It happened to me and it happened to many of my friends. It’s happening every day in countless neighborhoods. And how do you avoid it? I suppose you avoid it by ignoring the plight of the suffering animals like everyone else in the neighborhood and leave them to die slow and painful deaths. But wait, isn’t that cruelty to animals? Doesn’t that violate the law? No, it doesn’t because by ignoring the cats, you are not claiming ownership of them. By not claiming ownership, you are not responsible for their well-being. If you are not responsible, you cannot be held criminally liable when they starve to death. Isn’t that nice? The anti-cruelty laws in Wisconsin (and throughout the country) are encouraging people to ignore the suffering of the animals and allow it to happen. If you get involved and try to help the helpless, you will be held responsible. You will be harassed. You will be fined. You will be the target of gossip. And the people who actually caused the problem will sit quietly, never speaking up, never taking responsibility for their stupidity and living happily ever after. Law enforcement, especially, it seems, in Columbia County, targets those who are trying to solve the problem of stray and feral cats while ignoring those who caused it. It isn't right. It isn't fair and it cannot be left this way. We must, as a society, take action to protect, not only the animals, but those who care for them. We need to thank, not crucify, those who are stepping up to take on the responsibilities that others ignore, to clean up the messes made by others simply because it is the right thing to do.
To everyone out there who is in this situation, please accept my unending gratitude on behalf of the animals that you are helping. I'm sorry our laws are against you when you are doing what is right. I'm sorry that our law enforcement agencies are so short-sighted that you are treated as the enemy when you should be hailed as the hero. Please know that some of us do see the forest for the trees. Some of us do have a grasp of reality and understand the true situation. Some of us are sleeping just a little easier tonight knowing that you are making sure these animals have food and shelter and someone who cares about them. And some of us will not rest until these injustices are corrected and those who are responsible are held accountable, not only in the eyes of the law but also in the eyes of the public. May God bless you. There is a special place in Heaven reserved for people like you. Please keep up the good work.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Why Casey Anthony is Guilty and Should Be Executed
Ok, so I am on my soapbox today. You see, for the second time in my life, I have witnessed a national event...a "trial of the century", only to have it end in an epic travesty of justice. The first, of course, was the acquittal of OJ Simpson in the murder of Nicole Brown-Simpson and Ronald Goldman. It's too bad that OJ went to jail on other charges a year or so ago. I hear he was close to finding the "real killer" under a car in the parking lot (eye roll).
So yesterday, Casey Anthony was acquitted in the murder of her 3 year old daughter, Caylee Marie Anthony. Part of me is shocked and part of me is, sadly, not surprised at all. I think the ball was dropped by 2 major players in this little game of justice. First, the Orange County Sheriff's Department dropped the ball by failing to investigate the first phone call from Roy Kronk, the utility worker who found Caylee's remains. If they had gone THEN, there would have been much more of Caylee available for examination. This is crucial because it would have proven what the murder weapon was...chloroform. Instead, with nothing left by "dry bones" as they put it, the only tangible item that could be construed to be the murder weapon was the duct tape. That is where the prosecution dropped the ball.
You may agree or disagree with me, but here is my theory on what happened to Caylee Marie Anthony...
Casey Anthony was so wrapped up in her boyfriend Tony that she lost all ability to reason and use common sense. She couldn't leave Caylee with her mother because she knew Cindy would not tolerate her abandoning her daughter for a man. So, she and Tony devised a means of making Caylee sleep so they could party. First they tried Xanax, a powerful adult sleep-aid and anti-anxiety medication. They joked about giving Caylee Xanax, calling it her "nanny" or her babysitter, hence the creation of Zanny the Nanny. Zanny was never a person, but rather the drug that babysat Caylee so that they could party. At some point, the Xanax began to be ineffective. Even a 3 year old will build up a tolerance to medications. Perhaps there was a night when little Caylee, having been given Xanax, just would not go to sleep fast enough. So Casey becgan to think. How do they do it in the movies? What do they use to make people pass out? Chloroform! Just put some on a cloth and hold it over Caylee's mouth and voila! She's alseep!
Well, obviously, you can't just go out and buy chloroform. So Casey googled it on the home computer while her mother was at work. She bought what she needed and made her own chloroform to use on Caylee. Then the question arose as to WHERE to put the unconscious Caylee. They couldn't leave her in the apartment. What if she woke up and called 911? What if she wondered off? Someone would find her and the jig would be up. They couldn't put her in her car seat and then park the car at the bar. People would surely see Caylee and call the authorities. So, Casey the brainiac put Caylee in the trunk of the car, probably thinking that she would come out between drinks and dances and check on her. When she did, Caylee was dead. Was it a chloroform overdose? Perhaps. Was it heat? Perhaps. It would have been mid-June in Florida after all. Or was it the lack of oxygen in the trunk. Maybe without the chloroform, a normal person could breathe in a trunk. But the respiratory depression caused by the chloroform was too much for the oxygen-deprived environment.
Casey found Caylee dead in the trunk and didn't know what to do. She left her in the trunk for a few days while she tried to figure it out. Finally, after a few days, she decided to bury Caylee in her parents' backyard. You see, Cindy and George thought Casey and Caylee were at a conference and going to amusement parks. So Casey waited until her parents were not home. She went to their house, took Caylee out of the trunk and laid her in the back yard near her playhouse. This is why the cadaver dogs alerted to the back yard of the Anthony home. Casey thought, since her dad had already freaked out about the gas can, that she had better not use his shovel to dig the hole. He would surely notice something. So, despite there being 3 shovels in the Anthony's shed, Casey borrowed a shovel from the neighbor. At some point she either decided it was too much work or perhaps too time consuming and she became fearful that her parents would come home while she was burying Caylee. So she decided on another plan. In the meantime, she saw something very disturbing. Flies had infested Caylee's little body and were crawling in and out of her nose and mouth. So, Casey went to her father's garage and got duct tape to cover Caylee's mouth and nose to stop the flies. Some small part of her felt remorseful so she got one of Caylee's little heart stickers and placed it over the duct tape that covered Caylee's face. While she was in the garage, Casey also got the bags to wrap Caylee in. She bundled up her little girl and put her back in the trunk. She drive her down the road about 5 blocks and tossed her into the swamp. Then, she returned to her boyfriend and continued her carefree party life.
Sick? Yes. Criminal? Yes. Horrible? Yes. Unpunished? Unfortunately, yes. The criminal justice system has failed Caylee Marie Anthony. It is all we can hope for that this little girl is somehow at peace, despite the travesties that have taken place. There has been no justice for Caylee.
So yesterday, Casey Anthony was acquitted in the murder of her 3 year old daughter, Caylee Marie Anthony. Part of me is shocked and part of me is, sadly, not surprised at all. I think the ball was dropped by 2 major players in this little game of justice. First, the Orange County Sheriff's Department dropped the ball by failing to investigate the first phone call from Roy Kronk, the utility worker who found Caylee's remains. If they had gone THEN, there would have been much more of Caylee available for examination. This is crucial because it would have proven what the murder weapon was...chloroform. Instead, with nothing left by "dry bones" as they put it, the only tangible item that could be construed to be the murder weapon was the duct tape. That is where the prosecution dropped the ball.
You may agree or disagree with me, but here is my theory on what happened to Caylee Marie Anthony...
Casey Anthony was so wrapped up in her boyfriend Tony that she lost all ability to reason and use common sense. She couldn't leave Caylee with her mother because she knew Cindy would not tolerate her abandoning her daughter for a man. So, she and Tony devised a means of making Caylee sleep so they could party. First they tried Xanax, a powerful adult sleep-aid and anti-anxiety medication. They joked about giving Caylee Xanax, calling it her "nanny" or her babysitter, hence the creation of Zanny the Nanny. Zanny was never a person, but rather the drug that babysat Caylee so that they could party. At some point, the Xanax began to be ineffective. Even a 3 year old will build up a tolerance to medications. Perhaps there was a night when little Caylee, having been given Xanax, just would not go to sleep fast enough. So Casey becgan to think. How do they do it in the movies? What do they use to make people pass out? Chloroform! Just put some on a cloth and hold it over Caylee's mouth and voila! She's alseep!
Well, obviously, you can't just go out and buy chloroform. So Casey googled it on the home computer while her mother was at work. She bought what she needed and made her own chloroform to use on Caylee. Then the question arose as to WHERE to put the unconscious Caylee. They couldn't leave her in the apartment. What if she woke up and called 911? What if she wondered off? Someone would find her and the jig would be up. They couldn't put her in her car seat and then park the car at the bar. People would surely see Caylee and call the authorities. So, Casey the brainiac put Caylee in the trunk of the car, probably thinking that she would come out between drinks and dances and check on her. When she did, Caylee was dead. Was it a chloroform overdose? Perhaps. Was it heat? Perhaps. It would have been mid-June in Florida after all. Or was it the lack of oxygen in the trunk. Maybe without the chloroform, a normal person could breathe in a trunk. But the respiratory depression caused by the chloroform was too much for the oxygen-deprived environment.
Casey found Caylee dead in the trunk and didn't know what to do. She left her in the trunk for a few days while she tried to figure it out. Finally, after a few days, she decided to bury Caylee in her parents' backyard. You see, Cindy and George thought Casey and Caylee were at a conference and going to amusement parks. So Casey waited until her parents were not home. She went to their house, took Caylee out of the trunk and laid her in the back yard near her playhouse. This is why the cadaver dogs alerted to the back yard of the Anthony home. Casey thought, since her dad had already freaked out about the gas can, that she had better not use his shovel to dig the hole. He would surely notice something. So, despite there being 3 shovels in the Anthony's shed, Casey borrowed a shovel from the neighbor. At some point she either decided it was too much work or perhaps too time consuming and she became fearful that her parents would come home while she was burying Caylee. So she decided on another plan. In the meantime, she saw something very disturbing. Flies had infested Caylee's little body and were crawling in and out of her nose and mouth. So, Casey went to her father's garage and got duct tape to cover Caylee's mouth and nose to stop the flies. Some small part of her felt remorseful so she got one of Caylee's little heart stickers and placed it over the duct tape that covered Caylee's face. While she was in the garage, Casey also got the bags to wrap Caylee in. She bundled up her little girl and put her back in the trunk. She drive her down the road about 5 blocks and tossed her into the swamp. Then, she returned to her boyfriend and continued her carefree party life.
Sick? Yes. Criminal? Yes. Horrible? Yes. Unpunished? Unfortunately, yes. The criminal justice system has failed Caylee Marie Anthony. It is all we can hope for that this little girl is somehow at peace, despite the travesties that have taken place. There has been no justice for Caylee.
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