Man as Beast?

yesterday didn't start well at all....my mom said that she saw the neighbor beating his 2dogs with a leather belt...the poor things are kept tied up together in a metal cage almost all the time only to be let out for this I suppose.... that leaves me with a question...does such inhuman behaviour give me the right to correct/educate him? Or am I as worse than him because I cringe inside but am scared/don’t walk over and do something about it..it’s almost the same when you are confronted with a wife-beating neighbor I suppose….do you say, “It’s their personal matter” and swallow your guilt or do you try and do something about it and deal with the consequences….

It’s not only this incident which has got me thinking….there has been a spate of news reports about cruelty towards tigers…I saw a video clip of villagers beating a pregnant, senseless tigress mercilessly…isn’t the word humane actually supposed to embody all the qualities something of a ‘higher’ species is supposed to embody- kindness, love, understanding of each other’s differences leading to tolerance?.....

Ok all this venting has to do with issues closer home…literally. My aunts who live downstairs have got a dog. Rather younger aunt rescued her from her previous owners who under fed, ill treated and chained her up all the time. The problem is that older aunt hates pets. She can’t stand anything that is not chained or caged. My parents don’t want a pet. Especially since we lost our own pet to cancer. And that is very painful. So all hell has broken loose. Nobody wants her. And in the middle of all this, I have fallen madly in love with her. She is so docile, is very cuddly and loves to sit in my lap…..I'm super scared and I don’t want her to go….