Being Part of The Human Family

Categories: Editorials & Commentary
simba

Kim shares about something she has noticed for many years about the state of dead animals on our roads and streets. What can be done to elevate humanity in the modern day, full of busy people who are in a hurry to meet their scheduled appointments and commitments, when life just happens and animals get hit on the road?

How should we think about it? Do we let them lay there in the street and move on to our scheduled appointments? After all, we did not hit the animal. What do you think?

Tune in as Kim offers her take on what it means to be part of the human family.

4 comments… add one
  • Maggie Heinze Mar 17, 2014 @ 21:14

    12 years ago I was driving on a saturated eight lane thoroughfare with two other passengers, en-rout to a Thanksgiving gathering. It was a crisp, cloudless mid-morning in upstate New York. I was not yet in possession of a cell-phone but my mother had given me something remedial that plugged into a dashboard & only dialed 911 – in case of emergencies. It lived in my glove compartment. 12 years ago in the boonies, ownership of a cellphone was not foreign, nor was it standard.

    So we were driving along these substantial stretches of road with plenty of visible foresight & hindsight and happened past a family with a busted engine. They’d pulled over far enough that safety & obstruction were not a danger; their body language insinuated a “chin-up” attitude, tinged with boredom.

    It couldn’t had taken forever before a trooper took notice, but I decided to call it in – hasten the “rescue”. Thinking it probably gratuitous, the pro-activism was too easy not to do.
    We were the only ones to report it.

    Though this story lacks four furry legs – it came to mind. The sheer statistic took me aback. Having a decade to think on this tame tale, amid the larger climate, I’ve concluded the following:
    If you have fallen under the spell of apathetic, presumptive indifference – SNAP OUT OF IT! SNAP OUT OF IT RIGHT NOW. Keep grease handy for your elbows. And plastic bags in the trunk. Exercise your prerogative, and opposable thumbs.

    I dunno who penned the following but if you haven’t read it all ready, enjoy:

    Once upon a time there were four people named Everybody, Somebody, Nobody and Anybody. When there was an important job to be done, Everybody was sure Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did.
    When Nobody did it, Everybody got angry because it was Somebody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Somebody realized that Nobody would do it. So it ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody that Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

    Cheers Kim Greenhouse –
    IT’S RAINMAKING TIME!
    MH

  • mhikl Mar 18, 2014 @ 13:11

    Kim, I don’t want to point fingers but I found, to my distress, when travelling through some states, dead animals on the roads, lots of them. Back home they seem rare. I once saw a man, who had pulled his truck over, in the ditch whacking a big snake to death. Now I don’t know if it was a poisons snake as we don’t have big snakes in our colder country, but it still bothered me. I did see a large number of dead porcupines on the road leaving Prince Rupert BC once and was shocked at the number-lots. But it had happened at night and I was told that at rare times there was an overpopulation of them and they migrated and night drivers came upon them suddenly.

    I never though of removing dead animals; however, were I to find one in town I think I would be inclined to do so or to at least phone the SPCA who might be able to find and inform the animal’s human family. Those who treat animals so badly may be part of the 4% of the population that are born uncaring psychopaths who, I have read, tend to powers of position, and highly populate politics and business. The average Joe who does such a thing may just be unknowingly thoughtless.

  • Michael Lim Mar 21, 2014 @ 8:19

    Animals are necessarily lower in priorities especially when there is always a human in dire need. But we are never ever always too busy to stop and care for an animal that presents itself, especially in their misfortune. But counting the times I’ve had such opportunities, I have a miserable record, and I deserve to be pelted- with an egg no less. It may be because a lot of them are strangers to me. The less they are considered strrangers, I think, the more I see them as creatures that love, that care and protect the lives entrusted to them, can feel hurt, are needing of our understanding, and can acknowledge and show appreciation for our effort to understand them. When we get to know them that well, we know they’d like us to be there as well by their side when they go.

    I can say this because I have this one cat. As a kitten, it was very self-centered. I resented that. She is the surviving kitten of a stray cat that knew me. I expressed this frustration in ways a human would find hard to forgive. One time, she had enough and talked to me and this is how I heard her “What have I ever done to you that you treat me this way?” I realized how wrong I’ve been and I asked her to forgive me. She must have understood it. Over the years, she has lost this trauma of my mistreating her, and she’s given me all her trust, and she has become very affectionate. This did not happen overnight, but one incident convinced me they are much like us. When I bought another queen, a lynx siamese, she felt she wss going to be ignored and she grew aloof. They would always be fighting, and the other cat would always feel she was more special to me and abuse that notion. One feeding time, the other cat would not let her eat her share by chasing her away. I saw what was happening, set things right, and gave her no more and no less her share and stood watch. Since then, she realized her status as an equal and began to assert her place at home.

    Cats are just like people. When she was just barely a month old, with her eyes still closed, her sibling died violently. It was bit by my dog and its innards spilled out as it lay dying. She was beside him. It must have been traumatic for her, and it must have defined her initial approach to life- being distrustful and wary. I’ve come to understand this part of her, and my initial resentment of her stems from this lack of understanding. Being understanding to them is helpful to their healing and of their integration into being well socialized.

    It would seem like I’m describing an abused child who’s learned to trust and love. We have to see them as children of the universe, and to honor their passing at the very least. My cat is just an embodiment of the spirit that lives in each and every creature. Thank you Kim for reminding me of it.

  • isabelle May 4, 2014 @ 0:44

    I hold the opinion that animals are higher than people – they are born with their clothes on and die with the same clothes on. They need food, water, respect and LOVE same as we do. They don’t accumulate a ton of useless stuff bec they have no access to money like stupid humans do and they are compassionate and caring from birth, unless they have been damaged and made fearful by humans. They do not maltreat each other such as humans abuse and maltreat each other and their ego, well, I am a cat lady, and I have never seen a cat with an ego…certainly nothing that compares to a human ego….and, when it is possible, I pull over to bury a dead animal, or at
    east to move it to the side of the road so that it won’t be flattened into nothingness by busy thoughless drivers.
    Animals are so much. They offer us everything. The least we can offer them is respect bec they are alive. We should be grateful for each and every creature great or small and give thanks for what each one does for us from worms turning the soil, to animals eaten for food, to our pets who love us unconditionally and all those in between”

Your Comments and Feedback are Very Important to us.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.