Cayr Ariel Wulff's Blog, page 12

Action and Reaction – Why Animal Abuse is so Vile

Have you ever noticed that when you read a story of animal cruelty or abuse online, that the comments at the end of the article nearly always contain cries  for eye-for-an-eye justice?

If a dog’s been chained up and starved, there will be comments that say “The owner should be chained up and starved!” If a dog’s been beaten, the comments will say “The person who did that should be beaten!” If a dog’s been set on fire, the comments will say “Set the person who did that on fire!”

I’ve read stories of animal abuse where I had that initial gut reaction too. I’m not proud of that, and I struggled with those emotions; feeling that to react violently was no better than the abusive action that caused my outrage. I wrote about that internal struggle once already in an earlier blog post, and how I came to terms with my own cognitive dissonance.

Somewhat recently, when I was being attacked over the story I wrote about the Fairfield County Dog Shelter in Ohio, one of the bloggers* commented rather sadly that he didn’t understand why people had such violent reactions to the stories on our website. He even went so far as to comment that the fans of the website where the article appeared are “violent psychopaths.”

But that’s a little bit like the pot calling the kettle black.

The reactions the readers have may be extreme, but they are not sad and are not inappropriate. (Acting on those reactions would be inappropriate.) The only sad thing is that the blogger/critic doesn’t understand why people react so strongly and with such outrage. That inability to understand shows a lack of empathy on his part.

Empathy is the capacity to recognize feelings that are being experienced by another sentient being. It is the forerunner of compassion. Empathy is considered a desirable human trait and lack of empathy, in contrast, is one of the outstanding traits of violent criminals, sociopaths, sadists, psychopaths and those with narcissistic personality disorder.

And now, since we’re Up on the Woof, let’s get specific about dogs.

There happen to be some very good reasons why dog lovers have eye-for-an-eye or violent reactions when they read stories of dog abuse. In the book The Dog Who Couldn’t Stop Loving, by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, the author writes about how humans and dogs have evolved together. He writes about how there is something very special in our bond with dogs, more intense than with any other animal.

Many dog lovers treat their pets like surrogate children, and it’s no wonder, since as humans domesticated wolves to become the dogs we know today, we neotenized them; breeding them to retain juvenile characteristics.

Renowned animal behaviorist Temple Grandin explained in her book Animals in Translation:

Dogs stop developing emotionally and behaviorally at the wolf puppy equivalent of thirty days.

In her book Animals Make Us Human, Grandin writes:

Dogs need parents, not pack leaders, because genetically, dogs are juvenile wolves, and young wolves live with their parents and siblings. During evolution dogs went through a process called pedomorphosis, which means that dog puppies stop developing earlier than wolf cubs do. It’s a kind of arrested development.

Consider dogs as surrogate children: dog’s never grow up and leave home, they remain completely dependent on humans for their food, their shelter, and their medical needs until the day they die. In return, they love us unconditionally– in spite of our flaws. They protect us, help us, and bring comfort and joy to us. They do not hold grudges or seek revenge. They do not judge us. They are innocents. Dog abuse and cruelty is a vile betrayal of trust.

This special bond that we have with the dogs that share our homes and our lives is profound. To love a dog is to be entrusted with his well-being and very survival. That’s why we see stories of dog abuse as so remarkably evil. Youth and innocence naturally arouse a desire in us to protect. When a dog owner reads about a dog that has been abused it becomes personal; they are able to relate the story to their own beloved pet – to imagine their own dog suffering the abuse, and their natural reaction is to cry out for justice.

Feeling too much or too strongly is always preferable to feeling too little.

                                                                                                                                                               

* The blogger I’ve written about here posts under the pseudonym of “Topher Mackenzie.” He uses a pseudonym because he’s way too much of a coward to stand behind his criticisms using his real identity. His pseudonym is taken from the teen romance novel in progress The Pretty Devils where Topher is described  as: The”[T]he famous Topher Mackenzie strutting towards them with a cheeky grin on his face … Everyone knew Topher. Every guy wanted to be him, and the girls wanted him.”

You know what else struts?  Cocks.

Gassing, Death Threats, Trolls & the Fairfield Fracas

This past August, some AR people contacted me about wrongdoings at the Fairfield County Dog Shelter, and asked me to write an article exposing the activities there. It was bad enough that dogs were being gassed there when the shelter was never even at capacity, but when I learned that the gassing was being carried out incorrectly, that animals were coming out of the gas chamber who weren’t completely dead, and that witnesses were claiming that as a result, some of the animals thrown in the incinerator were still alive– I didn’t waste any time putting an article together.

As you might imagine, my article created quite a stir. Readers were outraged, and rightly so. Many of them called and emailed the county commissioners demanding an end to the gassing. Some of them got completely carried away and allegedly called in death threats. I’ve since discovered that an administrator on the news site where my article appeared removed the article, presumably because of the crazy fracas.

Remember those trolls that I wrote about in my last blog post? They didn’t waste any time either. They condemned me for inciting violence and accused me of fabricating the story. Their “proof” that the story was a “hoax” was that no other news outlets had reported dogs being burned alive at Fairfield. Furthermore, they took issue with me because I did not reveal my sources. Although the article is now offline, I stand behind what I wrote, and the people who came forward with the story.

Fairfield isn’t all that unique; there are terrible shelters all around the country. One thing that most of them have in common is that local rescue groups work very hard to gain an “in” at those shelters. They build a relationship–however tenuous–so they can save as many animals as possible; animals that otherwise wouldn’t have a chance. They do what they have to do and say what they have to say to maintain a relationship that allows them access to the animals. They avoid doing anything that might jeopardize that relationship, which is why the people who came to me had asked to remain anonymous, and why I honored their request.

As for my readers, I have no control over their actions or words, and it’s absurd to think I can control them. The trolls took issue with me for making that statement too…suggesting that I should soothe my readers so they wouldn’t fly off the handle. One of the trolls ultimately commented that he didn’t understand the reader’s reactions to the article. He didn’t understand why people were outraged to the extent that they made death threats or why the comments on the article contained so many cries for violence against the perpetrators.

In my opinion, that’s the indisputable proof that those trolls don’t give a crap about animals, and that they are not animal advocates in any sense of the word.

The comments on my Fairfield article (and on the subsequent follow-ups) weren’t unique. Any place you find an article about a case of animal abuse, you will find readers’ comments that call for eye-for-an-eye justice. As for why that occurs, I believe there is a very logical explanation…which you can read in my next post.

The trolls supposedly called the Fairfield shelter after my article appeared and asked if they were burning dogs alive there. Not surprisingly, the shelter staff and commissioners denied it. (Although why they thought the people allegedly committing the abuse would admit it, is beyond me.) Interestingly, the trolls did not ask the shelter to stop the gassing, a fact that underscores their complete lack of concern for animals and animal welfare.

The most important thing about all of this, is that after more than ten years of trying to stop the gassing at Fairfield, the shelter stopped gassing.  In fact, that is probably the only thing that matters. It was the result of steady pressure from the AR people who had come to me,  the public outcry as a result of the article, and a little late help from the Ohio SPCA that got the job done.

And in the event that you don’t think that stopping gassing is a big deal…in the event that, like me, you’ve been led all your life to believe that gassing is humane…then you should educate yourself and watch this video. This is not the Fairfield shelter, but is a clip from the HBO documentary “One Nation Under Dog,” and it shows a gassing. I’ll warn you ahead of time that if you choose to watch it, you will never forget it — and you might just end up becoming a champion to stop gassing at shelters wherever it is still the accepted form of euthanasia.

When Animal Advocacy Goes Bad

I’ve been involved in companion animal rescue since 1987. The past five years or so, I’ve channeled that passion into animal advocacy. As I’ve made the transition into advocacy, I’ve noticed a strange phenomenon. When a rescue group or advocate begins to really start accomplishing things, haters suddenly come out of the woodwork, raise their ugly heads and start campaigning to bring the group down with false accusations. I’ve seen it happen over and over, and it’s happened to some truly amazing groups that work around the clock to make a difference.

This past July, I suddenly found myself a target of just such a clique of haters. When I confided in my friend, Dawn, about it…she said “Congratulations, girlfriend, You have arrived.”

While I appreciated her sentiment and words of support, it’s not what I signed on for.

Those of you who know me personally, know that I struggle daily with depression. I walk a fine line between being a fully functional human being and tumbling headlong into a pit of debilitating despair. It is difficult enough looking at the photos of abused and tortured animals that cross my desk daily and advocating for them, without the added stress and anxiety caused by a group of Internet trolls.

And these people are relentless. I do not know them, and they do not know me, but they seem to have made it their goal in life to post defamatory and libelous lies about me and some of the people in rescue/advocacy that I have a lot of respect for.  I was not their initial target, but because I defended the other people and groups they were trashing, they now consider me fair game.

These haters – these cyber bullies, they are not even people in the AR community. (well, one is. One has a pet advocacy page on Facebook, but she spent the better part of its early existence doing nothing but bad-mouthing reputable rescues and advocacy groups. When all you do in AR is bad-mouth other groups, that’s not being an advocate. That’s being an asshole.) But these others…they are not in the AR community. They have just begun to paint themselves that way to gain the ears and attention of others that are in the AR community, and that’s for the express purpose of spreading lies about the rescue groups they are targeting. But under that false facade of ‘advocating’ what I really think this clique of haters wants is for animals to die.

They have attacked two rescue groups and an advocacy group that I have a lot of respect for.

The purpose of their attacks is to create a mistrust of the groups they write about and stop people from donating to them or the causes they promote. What do they hope to accomplish?  To “take down” these groups. A rescue group without donations cannot operate, and if they cannot operate, animals die – mission accomplished.

As I mentioned above, they have been attacking me since the middle of July. They have accused me of everything from inciting death threats to Internet fraud.

I finally asked them at one point what exactly they wanted from me. I’ve done nothing of consequence to any of them, except criticize their disgusting attack blog. I was told that they want me to sever my ties with, and take a stand against a specific group. And apparently, they will continue to bully me until I do as they say. Well, I don’t take kindly to bullying. And I don’t take kindly to people spreading lies about me.

The animal advocacy site that I write for is a great platform. It has a built-in readership of about half a million people. My articles there have influenced the sentencing of puppy killer Jeff Nally. They have helped stop the gassing at Fairfield Shelter. They have informed pet owners about tainted pet treats; mobilized people to sign petitions that advocate for elephants, ask for stricter sentencing in animal abuse cases, and demand federal investigations of crimes of cruelty; they have educated readers about zoo and circus cruelty, poaching of ivory, and the dog meat trade. From what I can tell, my articles have been making a difference. Why would I want to stop? I am an animal advocate. I am relevant. I educate, help, and build.

What would be gained if I caved to their pressure?

Animals would suffer.

To the harassers, the haters, the bullies and trolls:

You are nobodies.  You are insignificant.  You are irrelevant.  You do nothing but hurt and destroy. Crawl back under the rocks you came from, like the worms and insects you are.

I have important work to do.

Throwing Down the Gauntlet

I can’t believe it’s been almost an entire month since I blogged here Up on the Woof. I’ve been busy promoting the new book and still trying to keep up with my examiner commitments. But I want to let you know all about the promotions happening right now for Circling the Waggins.

There is a promotion running in the Kindle lending library 8/22 and 8/23, where you can borrow a copy of the new book at no cost.  If you are a Kindle prime member, you can

download a copy in the Kindle store at no cost for the next sixty days!  Of course, I hope

that you will post a few words of review if you decide to check it out.

If you are a member of Goodreads, there is a promotion running until September 18…where you can enter to win a copy of Circling the Waggins.

If you are a member of the Dogster bookclub, be sure to check the thread

about the Dog Eared Bookclub’s book of the month for August. You’ll find a

discount code where you can get 50% off a paperback copy.

And here is something fun for the month of September: I have challenged book author Bob Tarte to a Twitter War: “Duel of the Book Geeks.” Bob is the author of the books Enslaved by Ducks, Fowl Weather, and Kitty Cornered. We are both avid readers who devour books on our favorite subjects. For a bird nerd like Bob, that means books about birds. For a dog-a-holic like me, it means books about dogs. This video explains the challenge and tells you where and when to tune in!  Please share!

Childrearing: Epic FAIL

Today’s post Up on the Woof is about a subject that I have found very disturbing over the past eighteen months or so. I would like my readers, whom I consider to be an intelligent and thoughtful group, to weigh in with their thoughts in the comment section below. I’m quite certain you will have an opinion and that it will be worth sharing. Here goes:

When I grew up in the 1960’s (yes, I really am that old), I referred to my teachers and friends’ parents by their last names. My teachers were Mr. Nosse and Ms. Stout, not Ken and Audrey. As a youngster, my friends’ parents were Mr. & Mrs. Margulies, (I still don’t know their first names!). It was the proper way to show respect to elders. It drew a line in the sand to distinguish who was in charge and who wasn’t.

1967

 

My parents and teachers were allowed by law to spank me if I got out of hand, and although that seldom happened, the threat of it was enough to make me behave. The music of the times was top 40, Motown, heavy metal and psychedelic music. I spent more hours outdoors playing than I did indoors watching television. I received a top-notch education: 8 years of Catholic school and 4 years in one of the best public education systems in the country. The video games I played as a young adult were Pong, Pacman, Donkey Kong and Asteroids. This wasn’t just my experience…this was the typical experience of kids growing up in the 60’s and 70’s.

I’m sure you are wondering what this has to do with dog advocacy.

Stories about animal abuse come across my desk every day that would make your hair stand up. More stories than not contain the phrase “Officials say it’s the worst case of animal abuse they have ever seen.” Stories of pets that have been starved, shot, stabbed and beaten abound.  But the most popular method of animal abuse over the past twelve months was dousing a live animal with an accelerant and setting it on fire.  Yes. You read that correctly.

Think about that for a minute.

Setting a live animal on fire.

Can you think of anything more horrific? More brutal? More wrong?

What kind of people have it in them to do such a thing; so callously, so coldly, so easily – with such blatant disregard for another creature’s pain and suffering?

Sit down, because the answer is a doozy.

The abusers setting live animals on fire are young people between the ages of twelve and twenty-five.

Something has gone terribly terribly wrong. What has happened in our society, in our homes, and in our schools that has turned out young people who are capable of these acts? What does that mean for the future of our world, and more importantly, how do we fix it?

“Justice”, one of the dogs set on fire in the past 18 months. The four month old puppy died from his injuries.

I told you about my own experience during my younger years at the top of this post for a  reason. We all know that children born between 1987 and 2000 had a wholly different experience than the one I outlined. Do the differences in any of the points I mentioned have a bearing on how these youth process information and fail to develop empathy?

Let’s open up a forum for discussion here. Please weigh in…

Today’s News Up on the Woof

As a follow-up to  my “How Five Misfit Dogs Saved Me from Bewilderness” post from earlier this month, here’s a little video I cobbled together that tells a little bit about my new book:

Circling the Waggins, which was released on 7/16 and is available from amazon.com and other retailers.

The Real Bully in Belfast

Our boy, Waldo, is five years old. His father was a boxer, and his mother was a mixed breed that appeared to be part golden retriever.

When we brought him into our home, he came into a family that dotes on him, gives him the best care, and shares their beds with him. We see to it that he receives whatever he needs to ensure his well-being. He is a loved and integral member of our family.

Being involved in animal advocacy has brought impossible stories of animal abuse to my attention over the past two years. I have often heard a story and thought to myself “God help the person who ever hurts or tries to hurt one of my dogs. They will do so over my dead body.” But I’ve come to realize that our pets are not safe anywhere. I’ve seen too many stories of pets stolen out of their own yards and shot, beaten, even skinned alive by strangers. I’ve seen too many stories of pets shot to death in their own yards by police officers responding to situations at unrelated addresses. And there have been far too many stories of family members and friends taking their spite out on a family pet. I’ve concluded that the only place our pets are safe is when they are locked inside of our homes with us.

But now I’ve learned that they are not even safe then. Boxers are often mistaken for pit bulls. If there was BSL in our community and a local government official were to decide to remove Waldo from our home, there’s probably little that we could do about it.

Waldo is five. He’s the same age that Lennox was when the Belfast City Council Dog Wardens took him away from his family. Lennox was an American Bull Dog/Labrador Retriever mix. He hadn’t bitten anyone, he had no complaints against him, and he wasn’t prone to running at large. His family, the Barnes family, took good care of him. He was neutered, licensed, insured, DNA registered, Pet Safe registered and micro chipped. He was the constant companion of the family’s disabled daughter, Brooke. Lennox was a good dog. He was a loved and integral member of the Barnes family. But Lennox didn’t “look” right. The Belfast City Council Dog Wardens measured his muzzle and his hind legs with a dressmaker’s tape measure and decided that by their measurements, he was a “possible pit bull breed type.” On those grounds, they seized him.

The city of Belfast in Northern Ireland, and the UK, have a Dangerous Dogs Act,

which is a piece of Breed Specific Legislation that allows officials to seize and destroy dogs based solely on their appearance.

It sounds insane, doesn’t it?

In fact, it sounds as terrifyingly absurd as the Physiognomes during WWII who claimed they could detect Ashkenazim (eastern Jews) facial features, and would denounce people to the Nazis based on their assessment of a person’s appearance. Yet BSL (Breed Specific Legislation) of this exact nature exists not only in the UK, but across the United States as well.

The UK Dangerous Dogs Act was instituted in the UK in 1991 in response to a number of dog attacks by aggressive and uncontrolled dogs that had caused injury or death. Four breeds of dogs were singled out and named in the act:

Four types in particular were identified by the Act:

Pit Bull Terrier
Japanese Tosa
Dogo Argentino
Fila Brasileiro

The Act also also includes cross breeds of the four named breeds. Dangerous dogs are classified by ‘type’, not by breed label. That means that a dog can be judged by its physical characteristics and whether or not they match the description of a prohibited ‘type’—which is exactly what happened to Lennox. Lennox was determined to be a “pit bull type”, even though he was licensed with the city as being an American Bull Dog mix.

The Barnes tried to save their boy for two years. They exhausted every avenue available to them under the law to try to grant Lennox amnesty, but the Council stubbornly refused all attempts of contact from the family, all alternative solutions from high profile rescues, and any attempt at common sense and decency. (read the whole story here)

The only bully in this story is the Belfast City Council, who took a dog away from his family; kept him incarcerated for two years in a stark, un-enriching cell; denied him visitation by his family; refused to allow him to be released to rescue and adopted out of the country; and ultimately put him to death today. They didn’t even allow his family to say goodbye, or to claim his body.

BSL is Bull Shit Legislation. Educate others and take a stand against BSL in your state and community.

How Five Misfit Dogs Saved Me from Bewilderness

I generally use my blog space here Up on the Woof exclusively to advocate for dogs and share important dog welfare and dog rescue information, but today I’m making a little detour, because I have a personal  announcement.

My second book, Circling the Waggins, is scheduled to be released this month. I’m excited that it is being published under the Barking Planet imprint. Barking Planet Productions are the folks who brought you the Planet of the Dog series of children’s books. The McCarty’s at Barking Planet Productions are wonderful advocates for reading therapy dogs.

Circling the Waggins: How Five Misfit Dogs Saved Me from Bewilderness is an intensely personal story. It is unflinching in its honest portrayal of the heartache and joy involved when sharing your life with beloved pets.

“More than twenty years of performing pet rescues could wear anyone down. Especially when the pets that end up being permanent residents in your home are the most irascible, insane and ridiculously un-adoptable pets known to man.  Circling the Waggins follows two middle aged women as they maneuver through one unexpected pet debacle after another in a rugged and isolated cabin in the National Park.  Coping with Waldo, a way-too-brainy boxer mix, plus a mentally challenged hyperactive Shih-tzu/Chihuahua named Rocket Boy, is difficult enough. Add three more canine misfits, a mysteriously humming cat, and an impromptu mouse rescue gone wrong, and you’ve got what might be a recipe for total disaster.  With patience and compassion, the women come to discover that even the tiniest of lives is precious; heartache and joy go hand-in-hand, and love is an eternal circle of wagging tails.”

Please stop by my author page on Facebook to stay up to date on all the latest news, contests, giveaways and information.

Circling the Waggins will be available on amazon.com by the end of this month. If you are a book reviewer and would like a review copy, please send your request to me or Barking Planet.

Paperback: 332 pages


Publisher: Barking Planet Productions (July 20, 2012)


Language: English


ISBN-10: 0-9786928-6-1


ISBN-13: 978-0-9786928-6-5

Suitable for YA through adult.

Inconvenient Truths

Somebody asked me today if I wanted another dog. The person didn’t know that I already share my home with five dogs, and that although I’d love to have twenty more dogs, I don’t have the space, the resources, or the energy to care for more than the pack I have now. That didn’t stop me from asking questions. What kind of dog?  A husky/shepherd. How old?  Fifteen…but a very young-acting fifteen. Why do you want to get rid of it? Oh, I work so many hours and my son (also fifteen) is never home..although he really doesn’t want to get rid of the dog. But…it’s really not fair to the dog.

Uh oh.

Really? It’s not fair to the dog? I hate that excuse. I hate it because it makes people sound like they care when they really don’t. Do you want to know what’s not fair?  Having a dog for fifteen years and then wanting to give it away because it’s no longer convenient to have it.

Here’s a dog that has known one home and one family for her whole life. Now she is a senior who has already lived beyond the ‘normal’ expected lifespan, and her people, the people she has obeyed and protected and loved for her entire life are ready to throw her away like a broken toy. The truth is that she probably won’t live too much longer, and abandoning her in what may very well be the last year or two of her life is cold and cruel.

Stop fooling yourself. Stop pretending. The truth is that you don’t give a shit what’s fair for the dog.

The truth is, when you decided to have a child, you didn’t say to yourself “I’ll take care of this kid, but when it gets inconvenient I’ll put him up for adoption.” The kid has been plenty inconvenient. Without even knowing you or your son, I am confident of that. How many times did you change his diaper when you were out in public? How many nights did you lose sleep because he was crying? How many times did he get sick when you had other plans?  How many times did you have to drive him somewhere when you were tired after a long day at work? How many times did you have to scrape money together to pay for an unexpected expense? How much has your food bill increased as he has grown into a teenager? How much damage has he caused that you’ve had to pay for? None of that stuff is convenient, but you still did it. You did it because your kid is your responsibility.

Well guess what? A pet is a living thing. Being that it is alive, it has an expected lifespan. When you take on the responsibility of a pet, that’s exactly what it is; a responsibility. A pet is not a toy. It is not a hobby. It is a living, breathing creature and it did not ask you to buy it or adopt it—that was your choice. Your pet is not a disposable commodity.

But, you can’t say all that stuff to people. Not really. Because by the time you say “The truth is that you don’t give a shit what’s fair for the dog”, they’ve stopped listening.

So all you can do is make suggestions. A dog walker once a day? Doggie daycare once a week? How about Camp Bow Wow? Even one day a week will improve your dog’s life…and you know what? It will tire her out. For days. Even better, they are running specials all the time, and they are located conveniently alongside the freeway.

Belinda’s owner didn’t want her any more, so she put her in a bag and put her out in the yard – where she lay for four days suffering in the SC summer heat, until animal control picked her up. (she kept Belinda’s puppies, though.) I didn’t write this blog post about Belinda, but it made me think of her.

I know we live in a disposable society…but ask yourself this: it’s made our lives more convenient, but has it really improved our lives? The landfills are full because everything we buy is disposable, or we view it as though it is.

Shelters are full for the same reason.

It’s not fair, and that’s the truth.

Braking Bad

This dog was found in Alabama, chained up in the middle of nowhere. He was taken in to BJC Animal Control in Birmingham. He was so far gone both physically and mentally, that they had to put him down.

When I saw this photo, I thought my head would explode. I can’t believe that anyone on this planet would actually think that chaining a dog with a chain of this size is OK. With padlocks, no less.

I don’t care what the breed is. I don’t care what excuse is being used to justify such treatment. A person who does this, who thinks this is OK, has got their head all the way up their ass.

This dog was left chained on a public throughway. There is no owner to charge with cruelty, and there is no property owner to hold responsible. There is just another innocent pet who lost his life because he was betrayed by a human.

It’s easy to hate the people who do these things. It’s easy to wish them harm. It’s easy to call them bad names. But the sad facts are that the people who do these things don’t care. Hating them won’t make them care. So hating and wishing harm to them only gets your stomach in a knot. Don’t waste your time or your energy trying to break the bad. Instead, brake it.

If  you really want to stop the suffering, if you really want to change things, let that misspent emotion  fire you up enough to do something. Put the brakes on animal cruelty by writing your representatives and senators asking for tougher animal welfare laws. Brake the cycle by educating the young people in your life so acting humanely* and compassionately will come naturally to them.  Focus your energy on helping one animal. Volunteer at a shelter. Put the brake on needless euthanization and advocate for a shelter animal on death row via Pet Pardons. Sign petitions. Donate money or supplies to your local shelters (many of which are broke). Educate yourself…there are dozens of ways to make a positive change.

Be a light in the darkness.

*[ the word 'humane' get's it's etymological origin from the word 'human'. It literally means "having qualities befitting human beings." ]