| A broken promise to a pup | |||||||
| by BUDDY AMATO | |||||||
|
Animal cruelty and neglect are major problems in today's society. Many times they go hand in hand with other types of neglect, such as child neglect/abuse. What does someone do when they suspect neglect on a child?. They call DYFS, or their local police department, and make the complaint. This is the solution and for the most part, once it is established, the remedy comes along with the cure. However, what does someone do when they suspect animal abuse?. They cannot call DYFS, so the next logical answer would be to call the SPCA Law enforcement division or call the local police department. This seems like an easy answer, but, unlike child abuse/neglect, the animal can not speak for itself. The animal cannot look at an anatomically correct doll, and tell the social worker or the police officer what part of the body the perpetrator abused. The animal cannot communicate with someone and tell its story of exactly what happened. Because of this, the SPCA and other agencies have their work cut out for them. It would be great if "Fido" or "Morris" could tell how the owner, that when caught always say how much they love their animal and how much they care for it, abused them. If this were the case, the animal could reply on what a lying piece of feces the owner is, and my job and other law enforcement agencies jobs would be easy. No, this is not the case. So, this column is going to be dedicated to all the animals that, unfortunately, cannot speak for themselves. It will help help you, the public, to be able to help me and other enforcement agencies to do our jobs better and prosecute animal abuse. The best way to educate the public is to give some examples of just a few of my recent cases of animal abuse. By explaining this, I feel the public can look for the signs that may point to similar abuse situations in your neighborhood. I am going to start out with one of my first bad cases of abuse, this case took place in Neptune, and it was one of the coldest nights of the year. It was so cold that night that all the local news stations were telling people not to leave their pets outside, and to bring them in because the temperature was going down below zero. One of the so-called "I love my pet" individuals, that night, decided not to bring their pet in, and this story will let you have an insight to the results. We received the call at our headquarters in the morning hours, that a dog was seen not moving in someone's backyard in Neptune. This was my first, of hundreds of cases to follow that I was dispatched out on. I was with Doctor Stuart Goldman, the man I replaced, because they moved him up to the Sates SPCA, as a training officer. Chief Goldman and I knocked on the door, and an adult answered. We asked him if he had a dog and if it was OK. He replied that the dog was fine, and he just fed it in the backyard. Actually, the dog was frozen to the ground, and was far from OK. It had looked like the dog had expired in the middles of the night. It was obvious that the young pit bull pup died from exposure, due to the fact it had dropped below zero that night. The dog was removed as evidence and, being that Doctor Goldman was moving on up to the state level of the SPCA, the case was handed over to me to prosecute. The case was heard in Neptune Township court. The judge was quite unmoved by the defendants tars, and found her guilty of animal cruelty. This type of thing happened every year, and even though the last thing on our minds is bitter cold weather, I hope this story of animal abuse will remind people, as I said earlier in this story, that our pets cannot yell out to us that they are cold. They cannot complain to someone that they are being neglected, and they can not ask for help in any way, whatsoever. They rely on us to care for them and to provide just the basic of basics so that they can survive. What they give in return is one million times the care we give them back in love and affection. They will not lie to us, and they will not cheat on us or cause us harm on purpose, that is some thing only humans have the privilege to do. Your pet only wants to give you affection, it does not ask for money, or the keys to the car. It only wants, maybe, an occasional pet on the head in return for all of the devotion that it provides to us. I will be writing each week, on a different case, in an effort to educate you, the owners of the animals that we depend on for so much and rightfully so, owe so much in return. If you suspect animal abuse, please call the SPCA at (732) 542-0040, press line one for abuse hot line. Buddy Amato is a Hazlet business owner, who operates Amato's Karate and Weapons Academy. For more information, call (732) 671-9555.
Copyright Buddy Amato Amato's Goju-ryu Karate, Nunchaku, Bo-staff, Aikido, Sword, Kendo, Sais, Kick-boxing, Tai-Chi and more 589 Palmer Ave, Keansburg and is the author of Buddys Animal Kingdom, NJ 07734 (732) 671-9555 |
|