The Nature of Evil (Rant)

Two headlines caught my attention recently. 'Nine killed and scores injured as 86-year old driver crashes through crowded farmer's market''Four dogs killed, 15 sickened at local park, poison suspected'Which was the one to raise my anger and my pain?The second. Not because I don't feel for the people who've died and their families. I've shopped at the market they're talking about and it could have easily happened to my friends or family. Not because I feel that there is some inalienable right to drive that makes risks like allowing an elderly man who - evidently - was neither drunk nor drugged but simply too old to drive, acceptable. Not because I hate people and love animals.Probably, like most people who live in the modern US, I'm somewhat inured to human death. The news, the movies, the papers - all report a litany of death and human suffering on a daily basis - the more grotesque or horrific the better. Still...Intentionally poisoning dogs is an evil act. And it's a cowardly one, since the ultimate target isn't the dogs themselves but their owners who suffer the loss and guilt when their animals die. I don't doubt that its intentional poison, though the police don't have a suspect as yet. The park where these poisonings have happened is four blocks away from me; there has been conflict among the people who let their dogs run free in the park (with the inevitable side effects of dog crap and rambunctious animals) and those who want to use the park for other things and the animal deaths and illnesses have happened within a single month.It's the kind of act that I find morally reprehensible. Pets - dogs, cats and horses in particular - are terribly vulnerable to human cruelty. They've been raised, and bred for thousands of years, to live with us, trust us and love us - unconditionally. Domestic animals are dependent on us in ways that wild animals are not. And - they are animals.Not people, no matter how we love them, or dress them up or train them. They are animals and innocent in a way people are not. I don't mean in a religious sense but in the capacities and limits that are natural to animals. They do not, and cannot, understand the why's of human cruelty. A dog cannot understand why they hurt, why their sick, why they're a target because of the actions of the humans around them. They only know they hurt and they look - as they've been trained - to their owners to help them. For four dogs, their owners could not.A dog may attack you, a cat can be destructive. Cats will play with mice or other living things to satisfy their instincts. Animals can get angry, frustrated, lonely, jealous. But they cannot understand maliciousness. As human beings who have bred and trained wild animals to look to us for comfort and shelter, I believe we have a responsibility to our pets that goes beyond simply feeding and caring for them. We should never turn our tendency to cruelty to them, they are not suitable substitutes for our anger. We have created them to love us and to trust us. When we return that love with cruelty, when we betray that trust - we are committing a grievously evil act.›