Not that it's all that devastating that I haven't written anything in almost a week, but in case you were wondering, I haven't been purposefully neglecting my blog.

With being shorthanded at work, we're currently doing the work of 5 people with 3, and the news being what it's been recently, I'm frankly too emotionally exhausted by the end of
the day to piece together anything coherent/or meaningful. I swear, if I read one more heart-wrenching story about hurricane victims, I'm going to put a gun in my mouth. There's only so much utterly depressing material I can handle at a time. And last night's episode of Rescue Me certainly did NOT help matters.

It's with a little sense of irony that I'm about to write what I am, but bear with me.

I am by no stretch of the imagination an animal rights activist. I think PeTA is absolutely asinine to compare the food industry to the Holocaust. I have no problems with animals being bred for food, and I think veal is delicious. (And on a side note, I really don't have a problem with them being kept in those little boxes, either...as far as they know, that's what life is supposed to be like for them...)

I also have a problem with people who spoil their pets, try to psycho-analyze them, or otherwise place them on the same plane as human beings.

All that being said, it should be known that I also loathe the unnecessary killing/death/mistreatment of animals. As a hunter, I will only kill an animal that I intended to eat. And I will also swerve to miss a baby duck or bunny if they happen to be in the road. And I will feel guilty when said bunny manages to run right into my front tire when I'm going 75 miles an hour on the 10 Loop.

With all this in mind, there's a particularly heart-wrenching aspect of the evacuation of New Orleans. For whatever reason (and it better be a damn good one, because this is just sick) people are being forced to leave their pets behind when they evacuate.

There are things that I would not be able to live with having done, and I'm pretty sure telling a child, or anyone else for that matter, that they had to leave their beloved pet behind in a flood-ravaged, dangerous city, is one of them.

I can sit here in my climate-controlled, dry office, knowing that in about an hour I'll be headed home to my climate-controlled, dry, and food-stocked apartment, and say intellectually that these people are insane to even to consider staying behind in the aforementioned flood-ravaged, dangerous, toxic chemical-laden city for the sake of their pet — but I cannot in good conscience say that if I were in the same situation, that I would act any differently.

In fact, I can say with a fair amount of certainty that I would also have a hard time making that decision.

I absolutely adore my Jack Russell terrier, as does everyone else in my family. She's certainly as close to a member of the family as any animal is going to get. We don't even like to leave her outside when it's raining, or when we're going to be coming home after dark. So I simply cannot fathom just abandoning her in a place as destitute as New Orleans.

These people have already lost everything — most have lost their home, everything inside it, their cars, their jobs, everything — and we’re not letting them bring their pets? It’s cruel and sick on two counts. First, it’s cruel on behalf of the animals, as they will likely die of starvation, drowning, disease, or poisoning from contaminated water. And it’s cruel
on behalf of the people, because it’s like the officials are saying ‘Well, you haven’t quite lost everything yet…wait…ok, NOW you’ve lost everything…’

I like to think that those running the rescue operations and such know what they’re doing, but judging by the response so far, it leaves me with little faith. Maybe it's because animals can carry disease, or maybe there's not enough food for them, or something like that. Like I said, whatever the reason, it better be a good one because that's just heartless otherwise.