On my way to school today, the DJ on the radio was going on and on about the Escondido Humane Society fire, which killed about 100 animals and left the rest without a facility.
He mentioned that while it was tragic that so many animals lost their lives, it was incredible to see the outpouring of support and generosity that ensued.
All over San Diego county, people are donating money, blankets, food, dog bowls, etc., to the Humane Society.
While I somewhat agree with the DJ on the tragedy of the fire, I find myself in conflict over different feelings about the response of our fair city.
Frankly, I find it pathetic that San Diegans will respond to something out of the ordinary, like a huge fire and a bunch of homeless dogs and cats, but fail to show any of that generosity and compassion on a regular basis.
Obviously, I’m not just talking about our love for animals here. My point is that every day in San Diego, there are people who do not have food, people who need clothes and people who have nowhere to sleep. When you zoom out to the world at large, the problems become incomprehensible.
The majority of people feel little compulsion to do anything to help those people, but when a few dogs need a home, they break the bank to help out.
While I place some value on caring for our animal friends, my personal philosophy places far greater worth on human life than it does on animal life.
I don’t see our whole city jumping up and down to send money to the earthquake victims in El Salvador. I didn’t even hear about it on the radio, but I have heard three different DJs whining about the Escondido animals.
Though there is a considerable amount of aid flowing to El Salvador’s victims, this brings up another problem: It takes an isolated incident of grand proportions to get people to notice. Because the people that need help every day in our city are not making international headlines, they go ignored.
There are no benefit concerts, no fund-raising bake sales, no spontaneous donations. People don’t want to help a cause unless it’s new, exciting and everyone knows about it.
If you were planning on scraping a little off the top of your starving student budget to help out Escondido’s animals, maybe you could think a little and find a better place for your time and money.
A large part of the population of Escondido, and of the rest of San Diego, has no access to health care (unlike the dogs), no money for food and very poor living conditions.
By the time this column runs, I’d be willing to bet that the animals are doing just fine, and there’s nothing more you can do for them. Expand your horizons a little, and look around the rest of the city.
Take this as your wake-up call for the day-to-day concerns of all of the two-footed mammals in the city. Let’s take better care of our own species first, and then we can worry about the rest.
