HAROLD KELLER / L’Observateur / March 19, 2000

“A righteous man regards the life of his animal, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.” – Proverbs 12:10.

This verse came to mind last week when I heard on the national news that a man killed a dog by chasing it into oncoming traffic on a California freeway.

According to the report, the dog’s owner, Sara McBurnett, bumped a man’s car in heavy traffic. She was confronted by the man and rolled down herwindow to apologize. The man snatched her dog that was in her lap and threwit into the traffic, which caused it to bekilled. The police referred to thiscruel action as a result of road rage, which is fast becoming an epidemic in our country. I think we’ll all agree that no one in their right mind can approvesuch sadistic behavior.

The next day, the newspaper headline read: “Police search for dog killer, reward money pours in.” It’s been estimated that more than $20,000 hasbeen sent toward the reward for the capture of the dog killer. The amount ofreward money has surprised the police. It’s more money being offered as areward for this crime than for any high-profile missing children case in northern California, or the nation.

The San Jose police said that clues are being sent in and people are calling in license plate numbers. Because of the attention being paid to this crime, asketch artist has come up with a composite of the suspect. The policedepartment has one lead investigator and an assistant working on the case.

Never in the history of mankind has so much attention been given to a dead dog.

Let me say again that there is no excuse for such cruelty, but does any of this make sense? No, but we could have a problem when animal life is considered equal to, or better than, human life.

A couple of years ago, I wrote an article titled: “Has our life gone to the dogs?” I received a letter from an animal rights activist accusing me of not being sensitive to the rights of animals. One of my best friends said that Ishouldn’t write articles like that because pet lovers get offended.

In my lifetime, I had a few dogs and really liked and enjoyed them. If I’veoffended any animal lover, I apologize because that’s not my intent. I do hopehowever that we, as a society, realize the difference between man and beast.

HAROLD KELLER is affiliated with the Get High on Life religious motivational group. He can be reached by calling (504) 652-8477.

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