Punish Those Responsible for Animal Cruelty, Not Those Trying to Help

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.