Misinformation highway

There's a noticeable trend in the news as of late - animal cruelty.

A volunteer at the Exploits Valley SPCA arrived for her shift earlier this week and discovered a box by the building's dumpster. After investigating, the volunteer discovered four newborn kittens inside the box - each frozen to death.

The owner of the kittens, for whatever reason, decided to leave the kittens outside in a box overnight, instead of waiting until morning to bring the kittens to the SPCA.

In early March, police in Labrador charged a 52-year-old man with animal cruelty after a woman reported seeing a female dog with an arrow in its hindquarters. After investigating, police discovered the device was handmade with wood and a razorblade.

In February, southern Newfoundland watched with interest as RCMP and members of the SPCA forced their way into a Dunville home after receiving a report that starving animals were inside. Upon entering, they found a dead dog tied to a kitchen appliance, and another dog that was barely alive, withering away to nothing. In the same case, a dead cat was discovered the following day.

All one has to do is Google search "Animal Cruelty, Newfoundland and Labrador" to get a tiny glimpse of how some animals in this province are being treated.

How is it that a province known for its giving, kind nature is constantly making headlines in television, print and online newspapers, and radio over animal cruelty? It seems each month that a dog is beaten, a cat is shot, another is starving, something is rotting away in the backyard, and our hardworking staff at various SPCA outlets are scratching their heads. Police reports over animal cruelty are as seemingly common as break-and-enters.

To make matters worst, when these news stories hit the internet where the public can comment via threads, Newfoundland and Labrador gets the brunt end of the ugly stick. In regards to the story of the dead dog tethered to a kitchen appliance, a reader named A Seal wrote on the CBC website, "I find the whole matter ludicrous. It is OK in Newfoundland for the government to subsidize bashing in the brains of defenseless baby seals, but it isn't OK to torture pets. I guess perhaps slaughtering baby seals as a vocation gets one qualified for EI payments, while torturing pets keeps part of the bureaucracy in business. If the goofballs in Newfoundland stopped supporting the stupid slaughter of baby seals, I might find that there is actually a caring soul to Newfoundland. At the moment, Newfoundland's soul is black and destined for hell. And its actions are blackening the soul of Canada too!"

All it takes is for one misinformed online reader to make the province look bad. It's not surprising those against the seal hunt use such online avenues to attack Newfoundland and Labrador - no matter how wrong they are. If an anti-sealing activist in Pennsylvania responds to such articles, their views on Newfoundland and Labrador is that we're barbaric. They probably think Newfoundland and Labradorians use wooden clubs to beat baby seals to death, and, as the old saying goes, you only get one chance to make a first impression.

Newfoundland and Labrador is quickly building a new reputation, one that is a far cry from the well-known fun-loving, welcoming, kitchen party-goers. As animal cruelty stories continue to break, and as anti-seal hunt activists continue to post their misinformed thoughts over the World Wide Web, Newfoundland and Labradorians are building a reputation of being animal haters, freezing kittens and clubbing baby seals. Is that what Newfoundland and Labradorians need right now?

info@ganderbeacon.ca