Sure, you’ve seen doctors who tell you not to smoke – between death-rattle emphysema coughs.
Or dentists with teeth that look like an anvil was playing hopscotch on a piano. But have you ever seen a vet… murder a housepet? Veterinarian Kristen Lindsey sure wanted the world to see it when she not only went all Daryl from Walking Dead on a tabby and shot him through the head with a bow and arrow – but also posted a snapshot of it to the internet for all to see:
As you can see from her tweet here, she’s on a self-congratulatory high and all smiles here because she truly thinks she’s done the world a favor. Her assumption was that this was a feral cat. So, obviously, that meant it needed to die. (Because they end up breeding exponentially until all of America looks like cat island.) And who better to fix that and play cupid-meets-grim-reaper than this good Samaritan, volunteering to handle animal overpopulation, even in her downtime? I’m sure none of the picture-sharing was at all preceded by thoughts about that one chick who went viral for shooting tigers and lions and bears, posing next to them with her Chicklet cheerleader grin, and then posting them online. I’m being sarcastic, but presuming that was the motivating force bubbling in the recesses of her subconscious, there’s no way she could’ve expected the karma deities were gonna infuse such irony into the manifestation of her imminent internet infamy.
‘cause the tabby was somebody’s furry family member.
“Then maybe he should’ve been watched better. There’s too many feral cats. It’s not her fault.”
Yes, I see what you’re saying. But, backtracking for a second here, I recall working at a vet back when I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life and was willing to mop up dog shit for a pittance. And during my time there, if my memory serves me correctly, there was this group of (genuinely) good Samaritans who’d collect up packs of feral cats, bring ‘em in, and pay to have them de-balled and un-ovaried. Then, they carry on with no litter of heirs to the alley empires they rule once they die. Boom. Problem peacefully fixed. Seeing as that does require money, I’ve tried to see the “other side” of the coin. The argument for feline homicide. And what I get is this: as fun as violence can be when we’ve had a hard day and want an excuse to do acceptable murder, I feel like if you’re gonna be ending lives, you can at least make like the natives and have a bit of respect about the life ya just took. Even if we’re siding with the “it needs to be done” party here (I’m not; but I’m trying to keep an open mind), a dead cat and Cheshire cat-smile beside one another seem a bit in bad taste. That said, I’m not perfect – and I get that a mistake was made here. The mistake wasn’t just posting the photo or just killing the cat. I am against both – because I feel as if we become our habits – and if our habits are to murder anything, then it gets too easy to give fewer shits about life in general. But – even worse – was the celebratory nature of it that exemplifies the larger theme humanity’s come to adopt: irreverence. It’s not the cat’s fault he’s contributing to overpopulation any more than it’s yours or mine that we’re doing the same damned thing within our own species. I mean, how are you gonna feel when the aliens come and start dart shooting at our domes for excessively propagating? And then tweeting it into the sky like a universally visible batsignal? What if that’s our karmic destiny just like Lindsey’s was to get shitcanned?
In sum: Don’t bow snipe anyone in the head with your death weapon just ’cause you think you’re “helping”.
Life-ending’s generally not the answer to problems.
’cause there’s always more than one way to… skin a cat.