The displayed body of a three year old female dog was discovered today, hanging from the branch of a willow tree along Willow Cale Road in this quiet, generally-peaceful – accept for certain individuals – little city. The area of the city in question is a frequently travelled route within the confines of the city limits, subject to frequent suspicious individuals and their subsequent behaviour, as these nefarious individuals go about their daily activities, many of which they would not want the public or world at large to be aware of.

According to SPCA Special Constable Debbie Goodine the poor animal died a slow, agonizing, death at the hands of unknown human individuals or individual, who left her to slowly strangle, as evidenced by the indications the animal attempted to bite and thrash her way clear of the willow while she bravely fought for her life. She stated that the area in question is strewn with debris, garbage, and the remains of several other dead animals, but that this scene was particularly grisly and ugly to the extreme. She couldn’t determine accurately the amount of time the animal had been displayed hanging from the willow because of the frozen state of the body when reported to her.

Prince George is nestled in one of the prettiest valley systems in the world, the Frasier Valley, a vast ecological system that spans the south to north length of the province and provides the lucky humans residing here with everything we need to live a peaceful and productive life style. Picturesque and soul-capturing the city is home to around 75,000 cold northern human souls, use to a slow, meandering life style that leaves most people shocked at the sight of an animal many of them cherish enough to keep around their own households, hanging from a local willow tree for an extended amount of time, no one is sure just how long, but obviously it was at least a few days before anyone reported it. Mornings are excursions before work with pets or loved ones, people are friendly and outgoing, spending time to help neighbours, friends and even strangers, but are intolerant of individuals perpetrating deeds upon innocent animals, such as the individual or individuals who carried out this detestable act of depravity.

Why would people ignore a dead dog hanging in a willow tree for days on end? The answer is most people around here wouldn’t, it has mostly to do with the type of individuals frequenting the area in question, who are often use to incessant violence against the innocent and those unable to defend themselves, having been the victim many times themselves at the hands of family, friends and yes strangers and therefore have learned to take care of number one first, to mind your own business, unless they want to be the next victim.

The individuals or individual responsible for this cowardly, sick and detestable act of unneeded and unwarranted torture against a living soul unable to protect itself from individuals of a species it has grown to see as a friend and saviour, have probably been the victim of such violent acts themselves in the past. They may have been born with a curiosity without a conscience, which may mean their not actually evil per say, be bio-chemically imbalanced due to dietary, genetic, or unknown factor or factors, or even caught up in the emotional hurricane of fear tearing up the fabric of culture and societies that have existed for millennium.

What does the current state of the world have to do with an individual choosing to take out their anger, fear, frustration, curiosity, stress, or anxiety on an innocent animal in this remote little corner of the planet? I’m glad you asked!

The world today breeds fear in humans subject to the uncontrollable forces we see and feel controlling our lives around us, a fear inherited from our ancestors’ successful battle with nature, in which fear was a necessary element in our being able to survive the claw and tooth battle by avoiding confrontation with stronger, faster and fiercer competitors. One only needs to take a stark look at events occurring in all geographical locations of the planet to understand the stress, anxiety, and fear growing due to the changing world around us that we appear powerless to alter or change affectively; it’s not surprising that many humans would respond to the current situation with fear. None of us were born with the inherent intelligence, understanding and comprehension to truly perceive the complicated events occurring in the wide world around us and respond without fear, or given the ability to stand outside the emotional fears we’ve inherited, this is something humans need to learn, to accomplish and we will get better down our evolutionary road, if were to survive ourselves.

The way the individual or individuals decided to express the fears were all feeling in these undetermined times often leads individuals alone, or unwilling to ask for help or advice about their feelings, into dark areas of the human soul that the individual or individuals perpetrating crimes against life, such as the killing of this animal, have travelled into. They may feel that it’s only a ‘dirty animal’, that their lack of feeling for the animal is normal, but even if this were true, there is something sick about the way they choose to express their feelings, they should find new ways to express their feelings, if they have any, a condition that should have a sane individual questioning their sanity and hopefully reaching out for help.
The dark hole they look out of appears as an inescapable prison before them with no ladder upon which to escape their own fears. The strength to pull themselves by the moral bootstraps out of their bottomless hole is beyond the reach of most humans once they have fallen in, for the human ego is a stubborn foe, one who would often rather burn the house down then come face to face with the truth within themselves. They should reach out to the people in their lives for help in understanding why they do the things they do and how to change their choices, something that takes a lot more strength then choosing to hurt a living thing that has no way of protecting itself from their fears.

Certainly, shock, anger, and disbelief were the first reactions of Prince Georges’ citizens when they learned that someone in their community had strung up an innocent animal by the neck and left it displayed in a public place. Now that the emotion has died down, maybe we need to reach out gently through the community to the perpetrators of this unfortunate decision. To let them know that understanding, not judgement, is available to help them accept responsibility for their decision. To step forward bravely, so they can head down a different road hand in hand with fellow humans who also feel these pent up angers, fears, and frustrations, but have developed the strength and fortitude to effectively say no to these impulses to lash back at life. That their feelings are not their fault and they do not need to travel in the dark alone and they have the strength to make their decisions without letting their fears, make the choices. While it’s not likely they will step forward, it would be the right decision to reach out, just in case they want to change their ways, or even for other individuals in the community who might be struggling with coping with their feelings.

The fearful should remember that the truly fearless see themselves as normal, that to torment and suffering their is a limit; to fearing none, that no passion so effectively robs the human mind of all its powers of acting correctly and reasoning rationally as fear, that their fears have many eyes and ears and can see things which could exist, but often don’t, that hopes are dupes as fears are liars and that many of us do understand what their going through and stand ready to provide whatever help we can and their willing to accept.