The inhumanity of humans

My oldest son got married over the weekend. It was a small but sweet ceremony out at his great-grandparents’ place in the country. But that’s not what this is about.

On the day of the ceremony, everyone was scuttling about making plans. We did not have a wedding planner or a caterer or any of that. We had family, and family is oftentimes all you need. Such was the case, as aunts and cousins and neices and nephews were draping tablecloths and hanging lights and preparing food, one of my wife’s uncles came walking up “the hill” (as the place is called), carrying three black puppies.

As folks who enjoy country living will tell you, it’s not uncommon for people to dump unwanted animals out in the rural locales. I don’t know what rationalization they use to justify abandoning pets out in the sticks. Maybe they tell themselves that animals actually prefer being in the wild, maybe they think it’s better than taking them to a shelter where they might be euthanized, or maybe they’re just terrible and lazy people who don’t care and it’s no longer their problem.

It took less than a minute for my daughter to try convincing me we needed one of these puppies (black mostly, with some white… lab mostly, with something else thrown in). I was not biting. I don’t want the dog we have now, and I was not about to give in to her sad eyes.

Her boyfriend, though, hasn’t built up enough immunity to her charms, so now he owns a new puppy. As do one of my wife’s cousins and one of her aunts. They’re good people and those dogs are in good hands.

But whoever dumped them out there… they are NOT good people.