Africa disaster reaches inhumane proportions

[malmo]

This article is not for the squeamish... a true tragedy.

Pet owners in Zimbabwe face 100,000% inflation, can no longer afford to feed OR EUTHANIZE their pets.

This one is going to haunt me for a while. I wonder if there is anything that can be done to send aid...

 

[Boemy]

That is so, so depressing . . .

 

[LB2007]

This article is not for the squeamish... a true tragedy.

Pet owners in Zimbabwe face 100,000% inflation, can no longer afford to feed OR EUTHANIZE their pets.

This one is going to haunt me for a while. I wonder if there is anything that can be done to send aid...

I just read this on Cnn.com and felt sick, they are EATING their dogs

 

[~Jessie~]

That is really sad I feel bad for both the people and animals alike.

 

[Dave-W]

Wow!

Not very long ago, Zimbabwe (Rhodesia it was called then) was a food EXPORTER. They could feed themselves as well as others.

I wonder what happened.

 

[LB2007]

Wow!

Not very long ago, Zimbabwe (Rhodesia it was called then) was a food EXPORTER. They could feed themselves as well as others.

I wonder what happened.

They have the ability and resources, the GOVERNMENT forbids it

 

[smkie]

i don't know what you expect them to do. I read an article about the rain forrest that said it should sound like a noisy cafeteria all the time but instead is now as quiet as an empty cathedral because the rain forrest animals have been slaughtered to feed the hungry masses. We can't blame people for trying to save their children, their families. There was an excellent book called the Mountain People that took a small starving mountain villiage in Africa and gave a detailed account of their daily lives. When i read it and looked at the pictures of these 30 40 year old people that looked like they were 100, so starved they could not stand up. Love being something that took a back seat to who had what to fill the pain in the stomach. How morality broke down completly, and theft was the only way to survive, all i could do was pray it never happens to us. And yet our aid sits on the borders not allowed to go in and the red cross decides that people can now exist on half as much calories as before for their relief. I don't understand the world at all, this is so not necessary.

 

[Lilavati]

I posted this under the other thread on this topic, which died . . . I hope I didn't kill it . . . but here is my comment . . . and a comment on my comment. . .

I hate to say this, but I'm more appalled that people need to kill and eat their pets than that they are actually doing so under the circumstances. When things get as bad as they are in Zimbabwe, abandoning or killing pets and even working animals may be the only choice available. I'm surprised they're holding some animals for lethal injection instead of just shooting them, frankly.

The animals are victims of a much worse tragdy: Zimbabwe, which used to be a progressive and successful African nation has descended into a hell hole almost purely due to poor government, corruption, and political oppression. This is an avoidable catastrophe, and the people of Zimbabwe, and their pets, are the ones that suffer.

This is a human created tragedy. There is no natural disaster involved. There's not even a war. This is a creation of misgovernment and greed. I don't want to sound preachy, but often people don't care until they see starving people, or hear stories like this that we find disgusting. Sending help after the fact doesn't do too much to help. . . . the Red Cross, I'm sure, is making a practical decision based on how much food they can get in, and as for help not being allowed in . . . well, the government there created the problem, and they don't intend to let us fix it. So, anyway, when you hear of human rights violations, of people being ruled by authoritarian governments who deny them their basic democratic rights, not to mention such basics as FOOD, remember that it is not just humans that suffer but animals. Human rights is an animal welfare issue.

Ok, /rant off. /sermon off