I just read "Hunting Eichmann" by Neil Bascomb for the third time. The book is about the search for and capture of Adolph Eichmann in Argentina, South America, in 1960. Everyone should know who Eichmann is, but for those who don't, he is one of the worst war criminals in the history of the world, if not the worst. He was the Nazi head of the agency within the Third Reich charged with implementation of the "Final Solution", the euphemism for the extermination of the Jews in Europe. Eichmann did his job very, very well. Because of his tireless efforts, approximately 6 million jews in Europe were forced from their homes, relocated to Ghettos, and ultimately transported by train under horrific conditions to Extermination Camps like Auschwitz.
Eichmann managed to escape Germany after the war and relocated with his family to a suburb outside of Buenos Aires, Argentina. There he lived under the name Ricardo Clement for nearly 15 years, until discovered almost by accident. Then, the Mossad, the Israeli Security Service, undertook a bold and risky covert mission to capture him and bring him back to Israel for trial. The book is non-fiction, every word of it is true. But it reads better than any fictional book about spy operations I have ever read.
Reading once again about the Jewish Holocaust got me to thinking about a modern day holocaust that we, as the human race, are responsible for perpetrating on a daily basis.
Each year, the Human Population, especially in America, senselessly kills, tortures, and mutilates millions of animals. In a chilling reminder of the gas chambers, humans force innocent puppies, kittens, dogs and cats into kill chambers. This happens hundreds of thousands of times every day in America. And these kills are increasing, not decreasing.
People are torturing animals every day. The so-called "exotic pet" industry breeds snakes and lizards, and a multitude of other animals that have absolutely no business living anywhere other than the wild. Although many people treat their exotic pets humanely, many more don't, because they don't know how to care for them. Other people get many more pets, exotic or otherwise, than they can afford to care for or feed. The result becomes pet hoarding, over-concentration, lack of feeding and watering, crammed spaces, and the spread of pet waste and disease.
If you doubt this, just look at the articles that appear in newspapers once a week about people arrested for hoarding animals in horrific, cramped conditions, without food or water. And those are just the ones who get caught. Right now, across America, probably in a home not too far from you, there are animals suffering unimaginable tortures because we simply refuse to protect them.
It sickens to me think that in the year 2013, with people feeling they are so very advanced, modern, and compassionate, there are kill shelters in almost every county in America. Even more disturbing is that these shelters for the most part often have no choice but to euthanize due to lack of funding, personnel, and an ignorance on the part of the populace that overbreeds and refuses to care for the animals they have.
I want to be clear that I am not comparing those who work in animal shelters, exotic pet shops or owners, or the food industry as war criminals. No, I am damning the system itself, the part of our culture and religion that treats animals as lower beings somehow not as deserving of basic protections as humans. We need laws that protect animals from unnecessary death and torture. We need to enact laws, as soon as possible, that place reasonable restrictions on the breeding and sale of animals. We need to abolish "puppy farms".
The mark of a truly advanced and civilized society is how it treats its children, elderly, and animals. America is a free nation, but until America learns how to protect innocent animals from the cruelty that we are currently inflicting on them, we will continue to shut our eyes to the holocaust of innocent animals that is going on right around us.
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