Into the Void

@PuztheCat is on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge with @Chattemuse. Bye, my furiend.

@PuztheCat went to the Rainbow Bridge yesterday. @Chattemuse and other anipals are there to play with him.

For those who believe in an exclusionary Heaven that rejects animals, the Rainbow Bridge is where our faithul companions go after they die. There our pets are restored to health; they make new friends with whom they play happily in field and forest; and they wait until the day their human joins them.

Yesterday a cat named Puz had to be euthanized due to advanced cancer of the jaw. This was a sad situation that many cat (and dog) owners will have to face due to the relatively short lifespan of their pets. The difference is that Puz was one of the Cats Who Tweet. Puz was @PuztheCat on Twitter.

PuztheCat had many virtual friends on Twitter, including my own cat, Mr. Breeze. The pets – and the humans who “help” them type – rallied around Puz, regaling him with tales of the Rainbow Bridge. Butterfles to chase, drinks such as the tunatini, and endless supplies of noms.

A previously deceased cat named @Chattemuse who has been tweeting from the other side waited patiently for Puz to cross and promised to show him around.

As Puz’s last Veterinary appointment approached, the pets made a virtual #pawcircle and emitted comforting #purrs4puz. It was a very moving experience even for a heartless old thing like me.

If you have any doubt as to why one could possibly want to text 140-character status reports (Tweets) to a Social Media site, you’ve missed the point. Web 2.0 is about interacting with other people (or pets).

There was an awful article in one of the local papers about the township killing feral cats with an injection to the heart. That is so inhumane it takes my breath away. It is utter torture to the animal, painfully stopping the heart but not actually killing it immediately.

12. How does euthanasia of animals by veterinarians compare to lethal injection?

“potassium chloride fails to comply with minimum veterinarian standards because the lethal injection protocol does not include safeguards to ensure that the patient is unconscious before the injection of the drug, which would cause excruciating pain if the subject is conscious.”

Note that simply administering a paralytic doesn’t induce unconsciousness, it only makes it impossible for the animal to struggle. It is for the convenience of the onlookers. The protocol has to include a long-acting barbiturate to be sure than the animal doesn’t wake up during the killing.

It will have been completely obvious to the people administering single potassium chloride shots and watching the animals die that it is painful. These people have to be serious animal-abusing sadists to continue killing animals using this method.

Simply telling them to stop isn’t going to be enough. Everybody involved, right on up to the Mayor of the township, should have been jailed for animal abuse.

Now, according to the paper Ewing Twp is still catching and killing cats. Unless the program is now being administered by an ethical veterinarian, the horror most likely is continuing. Unless you’re down there watching every procedure yourself, you can be sure it is.

I submit that this is due to Ailurophobia in the administration and that the stated public health excuse is nothing more than manipulative sophistry. I am completely certain that the Township snatches beloved pets and treats them in the same hideous manner that they treat feral cats.

Death at the hands of an underpaid municipal employee isn’t humane treatment of animals no matter what the SPCA says.

Ewing Township needs to get the animal abusing freaks out of the administration and get some enlightened human beings in there.