Hello dear FML friends!
 
I read Lissete mail complaining against Marshal Farms and the later
comments that in this particular phrase: "Linking the Nazi death camp with
Marshall Farms may seem an effective way to blacken the reputation of the
ferret breeder, but what it really does is diminishes the atrocities
committed in the camps."  Seems to truly believe that such horrors can not
happen to animals.  OK maybe he is referring particularly to MF but if
there were any doubt about it I would like to share my point of view too.
 
I live in Mexico, a developing country where atrocities to people are not
so unusual, despite of this people itself seems to avenge against animals.
I can swear you that there are thousand animal, domestic or not, that
suffers Auschwitz and hell, here every day.  There are 6 million nobody
dogs in the 20 million people city, starving, thin almost like skeletons,
full of mange and rash and fleas, handicapped most them because a car rush
into them (8 of 10 times purposely just for the fun of doing this, I have
testified it with my own eyes, and if they are killed their bodies lay at
one side of the road for entire weeks and even months or in the middle of
the road until they became part of the asphalt because million cars run
over them, the first days there are pieces of dog everywhere) or because
when they dare to beg for something to eat at one of the several informal
food stands that you can find at any corner, the owner or the clients kick
or hit them as strong as they can, sometimes leaving them without an eye or
with the mandible fractured.  For those dogs that live at a house, in most
cases because of the generalized idea of "It is just a dog " they live in a
1 square meter patio, or they are chained with no more that 2 meters of
freedom, surrounded by their own poop accumulated for many days, or they
stay half baked, on a roof by the direct sun ray, eternally there with no
contact with humans other than when they are , feed with their owner's
waste The dog that my mother recently adopted used to have a "family" but
they moved and left the dog locked in the old house with no food or water
and what is worse with his snout tight with a rope to prevent him from
barking, the neighbours realized that the dog was there 2 weeks later, they
broke a window and let the dog out.  You can guess he was almost dead.  He
managed to survive and lived in the streets for several more years, with a
big trauma and afraid of humans, my mother took more than 4 months before
being able to be 1 meter close to him.  That dog went through hell!  Other
atrocities happen when they are caught by the antirrabic vans.  At the
antirrabic center they are killed.  If they are lucky the way could be
electrocuted with a circle wire connected to a power supply on their heads,
it may take several discharges to finish the job, or maybe 200 dogs in a
small room, one over the other, scared to death with their eyes open wide,
the doors and windows are closed and the exhaust pipe of a car is connected
to the room, the car is turned on and the rest is already known it takes a
couple of hours to kill them all (this really sounds like Auschwitz ) but
if they are not lucky and there are no other means to exterminate them,
they are killed one by one stroked with a club repeatedly until they break
their heads
 
Oh!  and what about the poor pigs, lambs and cows at the slaughterhouse, I
know they are breed to be eaten but not to be killed this way.  The guys
that work there are quite insane, it is not a rumor it was a small scandal
about 10 or 15 years ago (personally I don't think it has changed by far)
when a TV program showed horrible images of how the guys that worked there
enjoyed making animals go through a terrible pain, for instance showering
cows with gasoline and then burning their backs before cutting their necks
with a big knife.  Or cutting their tails and ears and udder when they were
still alive Or even at our research institutes where things have changed
for the best little by little but there is still a lot of work to be done
regarding animal ethic.  I have calculated that 1% or less of all the
animal sacrifice for science can produce a real benefit, and this means a
lot of unnecessary deaths.  And this is just what I have seen that commonly
happens here around, there are other more countries where sadic traditions
or habits affect and torture animals.  Don't diminish animal suffering by
not comparing it with Auschwitz, whatever that happened there was human
against human, all countries and cultures, at different times in history
have proven to be capable of great cruelty, and war is still a matter that
stays among us, but what we do to animals is an abuse of our control of
nature and technology and is like attempt against the most innocent of us,
the children, animals are like so.
 
As everything, there is no complete white or black and there is good people
too that loves and cares about animals, but they are few compared with
those that does not care at all.
 
Best regards,
Cathie and Gigio.
[Posted in FML issue 3174]