The Final Solution -Ireland's' killing fields

The following is an eye-witness account of a situation which arose in the past few days.  A farm in the Leinster area is being sold and at least 60 cats who had been living there 'had to go'.  The scene that awaited the rescuers who went to help these animals defies belief and is too graphic to depict here.

Following a thorough assessment and on veterinary advice, it was decided that due to the inbreeding and sickness in the colony, all of the cats, including kittens and pregnant females, would have to be euthanased.

This was a situation that was avoidable.  These cats didn't just materialise overnight.  This situation was cretaed by human ignorance, indifference and a lack of recognition of cats as creatures capable of feelings or rights.

This situation is played out all over this island on a daily basis.  Cats are persecuted and neglected in a way reminiscent of the middle ages! 

Ecclesiastes 3.19:

"For the fate of humans and the fate of animals is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and humans have no advantage over the animals; for all is vanity. All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knows whether the human spirit goes upwards and the spirit of animals goes downwards to the earth? "

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17th June, 2007

There was no final cuddles for these cats, there was little dignity for the humans who had a job to do.  No euthanasia through a vein, but a needled pushed into the crush trap, directed at the kidney area.

It was quick with skilled hands; hands that are used to saving not destroying.  Each cat was then given time, to ensure they had succumbed to the drug, then each cat had to be taken out laid on the ground and a stethoscope placed on its' chest to ensure it was dead.

"John", I panicked "I can still here a heart beat", he listened in with his stethoscope and shook him head, it was then I realized that the heart beat I heard was my own pounding in my ears.  We worked mainly in silence and the silence was deafening, no one relished what they were here to do.

When an animal is being PTS often their bowels and bladders go, it seemed the final insult in this situation.  These cats died as they had lived "unwanted" but with one exception - they were given recognition.

I did a very bad thing against everyones wishes, (was it more to reinforce my own humanity, than for the cat? I guess it might have been) I scooped up a feline.  Did I chose a kitten who up until today was blissfully playing ignorant of the forces that were about to descend on them, or one of the obviously pregnant cats?  No.........I was chosen by an old and battered black male; he had come up to me earlier.  The only one who had, in his own way, resigned himself to fate.

Why I took him was a purely selfish act of hope; because if we don't have hope we have little else.  The job is not over, the hay bales have to be searched, and searched again, in case we have left any tiny kittens behind.There will be cats who never ventured into the traps, and if we don't get them all this killing will have been for nothing.

I am not going to describe the disposal of these cats, as I am still very raw, but I held it together up until that point, which seemed strange.  I n'er shed a tear for the living but broke my heart for the deceased.

At times like this you look to blame, but who is to blame? The farmers who don't neuter? The folks who don't respect the cat as a sentient being? I don't think they are blameless, but I think the blame lays with THOSE WHO CHOSE TO DO NOTHING.

We are taking a break, some chose to go to the pub for a bite to eat, I chose to be on my own and come home, as that's what I do best in times like this, cut myself off from humans.

I thought I'd write this now rather than later, before the enormity of what I have been a part off sinks in.  Before the anger begins to seep over and I am blinded by injustice in my words; and in case my words are misconstrued as ANGER and BITTERNESS.

I would like to think that this has not  all been in vain, but I'm a realist......like the POUND DOGS who never see the light of day when in the pound, or flash of a camera, or get their pictures splashed on the WORLD WIDE WEB, there will be thousands of cats in similar situations all over Ireland  - the FORGOTTEN. No last minute reprieve for them.

No salvation for the meager price of €25, no being magically spirited away on a ferry in the wee small hours to pastures new.

I think the following sums it up so very well:

Success cannot be measured by the ones we save; but what we are doing for the ones left behind ~ Jan