The big news in the animal protection world over the last week was that Michael Vick got out of prison and is set to work with the Humane Society of the United States to help combat dogfighting. I will be blogging about that later today, sharing my own thoughts and some fun video. (It's the second post on my brand new blog, at www.ThankingtheMonkey.com/blog). On DawnWatch I wanted to share an article from the Friday, May 22, New York Times, by Sports columnist, William C. Rhoden, known to and appreciated by many of us for his previous sensitive columns on horseracing.
Rhoden's article is headed, "Humane Society Sees Vick As an Ally, Not a Pariah." (Pg B11.) It tells us:
"The Humane Society’s position has nothing to do with endorsing Vick’s return to football but rather with finding a way to use his visibility to fight the scourge of dogfighting, which Pacelle said is gaining popularity with African-American and Hispanic teenagers in urban areas."
You can read the whole article on line at
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/22/sports/football/22rhoden.html
You can thank Rhoden for his continued focus, in his sports columns, on the abuse of animals for sport. His email is wcr@nytimes.com . Or you can share that appreciation with other New York Times readers by sending a letter to the editor at letters@nytimes.com . But Vick's release from prison has been in just about every paper this week, so why not send a letter to your own paper, where you are the most likely to get published? Some of the smaller papers publish close to 100% of letters they receive. You might use Vick's release as a jump-off point for a letter discussing the ways in which animals are constantly but less publicly abused every day, reminding people that if they buy a dog from a pet store, they are supporting the abuse of that dog's mother who spends her whole life in a tiny cage at a puppy mill. You might even note that whenever one purchases rather than adopts a dog, one could be seen as indirectly responsible for the death of an animal in a shelter who coul
d have been taken home. You could even turn your point towards the dogs still suffering in vivisection laboratories, or the millions of animals abused on factory farms. Write whatever you are moved to write, but do take a moment to write and to thereby help make animals part of the public conversation. They need our help.
Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Remember that shorter letters are more likely to be published. And please be sure not to use any exact comments or phrases from me or from any other alerts in your letters. Editors are looking for original responses from their readers.
Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn
(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line. If somebody forwards DawnWatch alerts to you, which you enjoy, please help the list grow by signing up. It is free.)
Please go to www.ThankingtheMonkey.com for a fun celeb-studded promo video and information on Karen Dawn's book, "Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals," which was chosen by the Washington Post as one of the "Best Books of 2008." And check out Karen's new blog at www.ThankingtheMonkey.com/blog !
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Date: Sun May 24 12:54:53 2009
