Dog dies in car, woman goes right back to shopping
TUALATIN, Ore. (AP) - The warm weather early this week claimed the life of a dog that was left in a car outside an upscale shopping mall. According to police in Tualatin, 55-year-old Linda Rae Daniels of Cottage Grove took her pet pug to Bridgeport Village on Monday. Daniels parked her sport utility vehicle in the direct sunlight on an 80-degree day, leaving the dog inside with the back windows rolled down a few inches. Daniels told police she spent about an hour inside a store, and returned to find the pug not breathing. She poured water on the dog in an unsuccessful effort to revive it. She then covered the dog with a carpet and went back to the store.
There are few things in this world that roil my anger more quickly than human stupidity that results in animal abuse. This is why there will always be a reserved parking space in my version of Hell for Linda Rae Daniels. I can live with brain-dead religious zealots and Republicans- at least they think they're trying to do the right things for what they believe to be the right reasons. Those, like Daniels, who are so self-absorbed and uncaring that they would willingly and knowingly leave a dog inside a vehicle on a warm day deserve to find themselves in the HOV lane to my version of Hell. Do not pass "Go". Do not collect $200. Go directly to Hell...and check in with Lee Atwater, who will give you the grand tour and assign you your parking space.
In her defense, Ms. Daniels did try to revive the dog, and- failing that- took the dog's body to the Humane Society. That she was effectively slapped on the wrist is both stunning and highly disturbing. Why there's no jail time resulting from what under other circumstances might reasonably be referred to as "torture" is beyond me. Her dog literally baked to death because of her abject neglect and complete lack of concern for anyone but herself. I mean, once she discovered that the dog was dead, she covered it with a carpet and went back to shopping- Well, nothing else I can do here...might as well go to Banana Republic....
If there was any justice available in this world, Ms. Daniels would be the one locked in a car at Bridgeport Plaza on a warm day. No, I wouldn't want her to bake to death like her dog, but I'd want her to stay in the car long enough to come to grips with the suffering she condemned her dog to. Then, I'd want her barred from ever owning any sort of pet again (This is probably why I should never be allowed to wear a judge's robe, eh?).
Perhaps you're someone who doesn't equate this sort of thing with leaving a child in a similar situation...and perhaps you're right. Then again, perhaps it's an "apples and oranges" comparison. Both are reprehensible examples of neglect and criminal disregard for the well-being of another sentient being. Both point to an appalling lack of humanity. And both are indicative of a personality that simply should not be allowed to own, raise, or care for anything with a pulse and the ability to think independently. At the very least, Ms. Daniels should go straight to Hell. NOW.
