A Matter of Perspective – Death Penalty for Criminals and the Homeless

As Missourians watch and read the news whether a convicted murderer will be put to death, they also get the debate whether he should be put to death or receive a stay of execution, life without parole, and whether the death penalty should even exist in a modern society.  Odd parallels are present to the fight to save dogs from a shelter. 

Capital punishment is only prescribed for murder, and many argue the idea that “…an eye for an eye makes the world blind.”  Euthanasia is dictated for some dogs that aggressively hurt a human, a dog, a cat, particularly if they killed the other animal and their owner will not reclaim the pet and get them training.   Once a ‘Bite Dog’ is in the shelter, they have approximately 10 days until they are put down.  What if Capital Punishment happened 10 days following conviction? 

The Capital Punishment debate has proponents on both sides, with some of the same arguments for humans and dogs.  Some believe a convicted murderer can be rehabilitated or that extenuating circumstances should be taken into consideration, for example someone beaten as a child, someone coerced or trained to be bad. 

The same argument holds for dogs, just because they bit or even killed once doesn’t mean they will do it again, and the situation under which it happened may explain the behavior.  Was the dog taunted, was the dog frightened?  Did the owners think it was funny when the dog tormented the cat, did they let it kill birds and squirrels and not realize the possibility of escalation?  Not to mention those terrible owners who train their dogs to be aggressive.  Even with all this, I still feel safer around a dog that has bit and even killed, than I do around a human that has killed.  

Anyone condemned to death has protestors and lawyers trying to save their life, or at least prolong it through court appeals; a preference for life in jail without parole.  Even for the most heinous among us, someone will stand up and say taking any human life is wrong and they are spared. 

So what if a dog never bit, what if a dog did nothing more than get picked up for being on the street without identification, without someone to claim them – they are just homeless? 

The dogs in shelters have volunteers, with the help of rescue groups and potential adopters, frantically trying to save them all.  We send emails, cross post in all social media we have access to, and call our friends and family and all say the same thing – This is a good dog that doesn’t deserve to die. 

The staff at the shelter appreciate the help but also face the brutal reality that we don’t have space enough.  More dogs arrive at the shelter every day and we have to find a way to service the public.  Sometimes I wonder if we’re really enabling the public?

As Missourians talk about how expensive maintaining death row is, and the court costs of death penalty cases, I think of our municipal shelter struggling to maintain daily operations.  More like a field hospital or disaster relief center, the shelter focuses on what MUST happen every day and staff tell themselves “Maybe tomorrow I’ll get the time to bathe that dog…”  What if Missouri stopped debating the death penalty, just sentenced to life in jail without parole, and all that money spent on their trials and stays and even the execution itself was instead spent to better the community they had harmed?  It costs less for life without parole that an execution in most cases.

What if we call euthanasia at shelters, in the case of healthy and adoptable dogs, exactly what it is; Killing…a death penalty for doing nothing wrong but being homeless.

What is it saying about all of us that dogs are treated like criminals, shelters can be like jails, and a death penalty is imposed on a dog just because there are too many of them?

What if we rounded up all the homeless in every city, put them in a jail for five to 60 days, then if no one came to claim them, if no one wanted to foster, rescue, or adopt them, we killed them too?  They are on the streets, they don’t have an address, they dig through trash, need baths and shaves, and are perceived as a nuisance.  (Just ask me, I live in an area with plenty of homeless.)  In reality they are as kind and nice as any dog at the shelter.  But I’d take a dog into my home before I’d take a homeless person.  What’s that saying about me?

What if we advertised ‘Spay and Neuter’ as ‘Sterilize and Vasectomize’ on bumper stickers, and told the Octa-moms, the Duggars, and John and Kate we need to remove a few of their kids because they are over the limit?

What if city ordinances were passed to say you can’t live here if you’re Irish, Italian, or Muslim, or Jewish?   But go to another city and you’re ok.  People want to adopt Pit Bulls, but they can’t if they live in the wrong neighborhood.

What if we treated humans like we treat animals?  What if we treat animals like we treat humans?

There’s no clear right or wrong here, no opinion to press or sell.  Only the quote from Gandhi you probably all know: “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”  And then a quote from a comment board “Do people realize we are all animals or is there a documented belief that humans are not animals?”