Animals’ Rights — How Our Laws and Attitudes Have Changed

The news is still full of horrifying reports of animal cruelty. (Calling all vigilantes.) But it could be that these stories only make the news because of people’s attitudes. Millions of people are horrified and enraged by animal abuse.

Our laws still aren’t strict enough — what’s-his-name is out of jail already — but the laws are stricter than they used to be.

This heart-breaking infuriating true story — from 1965 — led to the passage of a strong (stronger anyway) animal protection bill in Congress.

This article really captures the heartbreak of a family whose Dalmatian was kidnapped for medical research. And it shows the huge underground network involved in capturing thousands of dogs and cats — strays, feral, household pets, it didn’t matter — and smuggling them into laboratories.

This is a long article but it’s a good read, as infuriating as it is. The article makes really lifelike three-dimensional portrayals of the main characters — villains and good Samaritans alike. It’s like Stephen King’s best stories, where you feel like you know some of the characters by the end of the book.

Since this happened 44 years ago, most of these people are probably dead by now.

This story pushes just about every negative emotional button there is, but it’s a real page-turner (or whatever the online equivalent would be). If you’re like me, you probably wish you could time-travel back to 1965 and perform a few “experiments” on Jack Clark, Bill Miller and Arthur Nersesian. And hold the anesthesia.

But things have slowly improved in the last forty-four years. Haven’t they?