My last post was rather tongue-in-cheekly annoyed about certain kinds of Facebook statuses. It's not something that gets me genuinely angry, merely something that kind of bugs me; a ripple of discontent in an otherwise relatively smooth afternoon, you could say.
What I'm about to tell you today, on the other hand, makes me truly, sincerely, gut-churningly livid. And sick. And sad.
I learned about this the day after making the Facebook-related update, and I've been waiting ever since to update my readers. Not because I want to ruin your week the way this ruined mine, but because there's a call for action here that needs to be answered. This is not for the faint-hearted, so if you can't stomach the mistreatment of animals, I suggest you click the Back button now.
Here we go.
I'm going to try to skimp on the details as much as I can. Back in June, in Florida, a mother (and I use the term as loosely as possible) and her two sons found a pair of kittens in a public park. Eight-week-old adorable black and white kittens. And they beat them with an aluminum baseball bat. For no discernible reason.
Sorry. I shake just writing this. One of the kittens died from his injuries; the other, who was named Dexter by the veterinary staff who worked valiantly to save him, ultimately had to be euthanized in August. Dexter and his brother, who was posthumously named Drake, were Hemingway cats, with seven toes on each foot.
Why this woman isn't in jail with her children in the custody of the state is beyond me. Somehow she was able to get out on $3,500 bail, and she still has her kids living with her. This sick excuse for a human being is currently at liberty.
Now, I wouldn't have gone about ruining your day for no reason. There is something you can do. A petition exists online to have this woman prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The case against Wilana Frazier is currently proceeding, and they say the evidence against her is strong (apparently her own sister-in-law was among the witnesses and testified against her), but the petition is meanwhile ongoing and will not close until it reaches its target goal of 100,000 signatures. It's almost halfway there. Every time another thousand signatures is added, a fresh copy is sent to the Hernando County State Attorney's office. Backing the petition is Care2, one of the internet's biggest sites devoted to animals and the environment.
You can also show your support for PetLuvs, the nonprofit clinic that labored for several weeks to save Dexter's life, by purchasing Team Dexter memorial bands. Each band costs $3 and the money will benefit their spay/neuter clinic.
From what I'm reading, they're gearing up to make this a landmark case and possibly change the animal abuse laws in Florida. Maybe, with enough of us lending our voices and expressing our outrage, we can prevent what happened to Drake and Dexter from happening again.
Join me Mondays and Thursdays to laugh, to think, and to maybe change the world a little bit.
She needs to be charged with something like child abuse, too.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. Toward the bottom of the article attached to the petition, there is something about that; they want her charged with something along those lines. I think it was forcing a child to participate in a criminal activity.
ReplyDeleteWow this boils me. I definitely signed this petition! As disturbed and saddened as I am by this abuse, I'm concerned about getting this woman investigated by CPS because this kind of thing doesn't happen out of the blue. There's a progression of callousness to reach this level of insensitivity to beat an animal in front of children in cold blood. I'm just as concerned for her children as for these kittens.
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