The Wittenbergs: Taken

First off, I hope every one had a truly blessed Easter. After church, Rod and I had lunch with five friends, saw a matinee movie (Taken), and spent a Maggie Moo's giftcard one of my students gave me for my birthday (peanut butter and chocolate ice cream - yummmmm). I recommend Taken- very intense, but tells a story that needs to be heard. Many young women are trafficked worldwide each year in a sickening yet lucrative business. The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women states "The United Nations now lists Mexico as the number one center for the supply of young children to North America. Most are sold to rich, childless couples unwilling to wait for bona fide adoption agencies to provide them with a child. The majority are sent to international pedophile organizations. Many times the children are snatched while on errands for their parents. Often they are drugged and raped. Most of the children over 12 end up as prostitutes. Hector Ramirez, a former deputy, or Mexican Member of Parliament, stated that "many of the state and city authorities [are] doing absolutely nothing to stop what is going on." (Allan Hall, The Scotsman, 25 August 1998)". It is absurd that acts such as these go on all around us every day, and truth be told could probably easily be controlled.

On another depressing note... why can't we as humans clean up our act and clean up our streets of homeless animals? If you want a pet, ask yourself- do I have the time and energy to devote what it takes to this new family member? And, will I view it as a new family member, or an object that I simply want to have power and control and ownership over? And, do I want it just because it's a cute cuddly furball at 15 pounds but once it becomes a slobbery 65 pound adult dog will throw it in a pen in the backyard and other than tossing food to it every day I'll have no interest in it? Or, perhaps, it's a cat, so if I decide I don't want it I can just turn it out on the streets. Argh! There is an orange and white kitty hanging around our house that seems to have no home. She's pretty friendly, if you take your time with her, but a bit timid. We see her sporadically, and yesterday noticed she's pregnant. We called the Fayetteville Animal Shelter to evaluate our options, and found out that they are SWAMPED - they received SEVENTY animals in a SINGLE DAY last week. A single day! This is one shelter in one city in one state in one country - and they received seventy unwanted unloved animals in one single day. The Humane Society of the United States estimates that 3-4 million dogs and cats are euthanized in the U.S. each year. This is inexcusable. PLEASE make sure, if you get a pet, that you are getting it for the right reasons! And PLEASE adopt from an animal shelter! Contrary to what many believe, animal shelters don't harbor nasty stinky ugly flea-ridden scoundrels, but some of the nicest dogs and cats, mutts and purebreeds, that you'll ever run across! Don't support breeders (and potentially puppy mills)- adopt a pet from an animal shelter! You can see pets for adoption in your area on Petfinder.com (and can even look them up by breed, age, etc.).

We got a GREAT dog from the animal shelter a year ago, who became fast friends with our old girl Haley. Scooter has really rounded out our family!