Since I adopted my new dog Lily from an animal sanctuary (CAF - Companion Animal Federation) a couple of weeks ago, no, actually, even before that, when I only had Smug (another abandoned dog that I rescued by chance), people often tell me how kind they think I am to give a home to ugly old mutts (in other people's eyes), and boy some really exaggerate, it's nice to hear people saying nice things about you and give credit to something that you've done. Every time people start giving these compliments, I can feel my body getting light, and my feet nearly off the ground, floating in the air like a real angel, the truth is, I know I am not as nice as they think, and I do tell them..... I think my compassions are strictly limited to animals, which I think, in this human dominated world, they don't really have a choice how they live, it's all up to human beings, that's why when I see animals in a bad way, I know the blame is on us, we are the ones responsible for putting them in such bad situations, so it's only fair that I want to do something to help.
A good example that I'm more of a devil than an angel, before I decided to join CAF (Companion Animal Federation) as a volunteer and to make regular donations to them, my mum said to me, "Why don't you go find an old people's home or children's home to help? I think it would be much more meaningful, animals are just animals, you know..." I retorted that I didn't think it's my fault that people don't plan for their future and don't have savings for when they're old, (in HK, old people's homes are mainly for the poor elderly with no or little savings), I disagree that people should spend all they have when they're young, then put their feet up and expect the government to take care of them, and then have youngsters volunteering to change their nappies, in HK, income tax is peanuts, we contribute hardly anything back, people have no rights to count on the government for everything. Over here, you either have to save up for your retirement, or you have kids, hoping that they will take care of you when you're old. So, that's old people's home ruled out. As for children's homes, I agree that orphans or abandoned kids are very unfortunate and do need as much help and resources as possible, unlike some of the elderly who created the bad fate for themselves, nobody asks to be born, especially only to be an orphan, they have no control of their misfortune. However, compared to animals in suffering, there are plenty of people around the world who feel the same and are willing to help an unprivileged group such as orphans or children in homes, they get far more sympathy and awareness than these poor animals, because people just generally think that animals are inferior to human anyway, what's so big deal that they suffer?
Of course, after my explanation, my mum called me stupid and evil.
Hence, I'm willing to be one of the minority who think differently. Right from the beginning I was clear that if I was to help a charity out, I will only go to an animal charity. I think that all lives should be equal, besides, even a human orphan who lives in a home can work hard and path a bright future for himself given the resources (talking about developed countries of course, not orphans in Romania, or Bulgaria etc unfortunately), nothing's stopping these children from turning their misfortune around, they can still be anything they want to be, but for abandoned or stray animals, even surviving is hard, what resources are there for these creatures? What future do they have? The government here is more keen to kill them all to be rid of the problem than to help. There has to be people who fight for the poor animals rights and to show them love.
I was called evil again this time by (An odd bloke that I know) (He He) Patrick one Saturday a few weeks ago, Patrick was giving me a lift to CAF (I usually help out at weekends), on the way we witnessed a traffic accident, a little child about 8 or 9 years old was hit by a van just before a traffic light, and was sprawled out on the road, just as Patrick was about to jump out of the car to help him (Patrick is a doctor himself), I stopped him, I pointed to an ambulance parked in the lay-by of the opposite lane, I said to him, "don't worry, he'll be in good hands any minute now, please just take me to CAF." He looked at me in disbelief, that at this moment, I still put my animals before human. When we were both over the shock, he jokingly called me evil. I did feel guilty for a while, but I felt ok when I read in the papers the next day that the boy didn't die.
So, I decided that I don't deserve all those compliments about me being an angelic, kind-hearted person, and you should see why.
