Pet Slaughter

I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it. ~Abraham Lincoln

Earlier this month Berceloneta, Puerto Rico hired Animal Control Solution to clear three housing projects of pets after the city recently took over administration of the projects.

Municipal workers surrounded the housing complexes and prevented anyone from leaving with a pet. Pets were confiscated in front of children. According to Mayor Sol Luis Fontanez, it was expected the animals were to be adopted or euthanized humanely.

The animals were turned over to Animal Control Solutions, which was to be paid $60 for every animal picked up and another $100 for each trip to transport the animals to a shelter in the suburb of Carolina. Injections were administered, allegedly as a sedative for the ride to the shelter. The animals were then, “slammed into vehicles.”

But instead of being taken to a shelter, 80 animals were thrown from a 50-foot-high bridge in the neighboring town of Vega Baja. Some were already dead from the brutality and injections when tossed, but many were still alive. As can be imagined, from that height, there were innumerable broken bones, even broken backs, and other injuries. A few survived and somehow managed to crawl up to the highway. Six or seven were eventually reunited with their owners. .

Despite this, Animal Control Solution owner Julio Diaz denied these were the same animals he confiscated. But police have confirmed their involvement and the mayor has confirmed the public housing administration was also involved. No arrests have been made but an investigation is ongoing.

A $22.5 million (euro15.75 million) lawsuit has been filed against the municipality of Barceloneta, Mayor Fontanez, Puerto Rico's public housing director, the owner of a private animal control company (no surprise) and several others.

Public outrage was not limited to Puerto Rico and the United States. Many nations were represented among the signatures on a petition that was delivered to Aníbal Acevedo-Vilá, Governor of Puerto Rico during a demonstration.

Just for the record, the housing projects also receive funding from the U.S. government. The Department of Housing and Urban Development in Washington said it does not have a no-pet policy and would not authorize a mass confiscation of animals.

Personally, I would not give a fig for any man's religion whose horse, cat and dog do not feel its benefits. Life in any form is our perpetual responsibility. ~S. Parkes Cadman

www.mercyandpercy.com/

Free Health Care

There has been a lot of information passed around in emails on Canada’s “free” health care. None of it has been complimentary to Canada. To read what complimentary things Canadian Health Care has to say about itself, click here.

To get an entirely different view of the Canadian health care system, you can watch videos of actual cases where the system falters or fails. The easiest way to find and access these videos is through director Stuart Browning’s YouTube site. While there, be sure to watch, “A Short Course in Brain Surgery” and “Two Women.” Both are fairly short.

England has a national healthcare system and from what I have been reading on it lately, it isn’t any more popular than Canada’s. Many certainly do not want a national health care system in the U.S. We already know how well our government coordinates to accomplish little or nothing.

At one time Hillary Clinton suggested modeling a national healthcare system in the US after Arizona’s AHCCCS (Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System) program. What a disaster that would have been!

Not too surprisingly, the American Medical Student Association is touting universal health care.

We are slowly and definitively drifting closer to where we have zero input in our health care – diagnosis, treatment and timing of our inevitable demise. The government does not give away freebies, especially expensive freebies. One way or another, those who have the greatest need will suffer the most and gain the least from a national health care plan.

The latest idea is evidently a national insurance plan of one type or another. Yes, there are innumerable Americans who do not have health insurance and would like to have it for themselves and their families, but the question arises as to whether a national insurance plan would fare any better for needy citizens than the government’s response to hurricane Katrina victims.

Remember, “Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.” (Ronald Reagan.

http://www.mercyandpercy.com/

Abandoned By God

Sometimes I get the feeling from things I hear and read that many today believe God is lounging around in heaven, smiling and knitting Good Christian awards to hand out to anyone and everyone who has ever not kicked the cat and has done at least one good deed in life. (Multiple personal good deeds preferred but well-bred family connections count.)

Okay, that's stretching things a bit, but you get the idea. In today's society, the general conception is too often that anything goes with God - that he's just a big teddy bear of a grandfather waiting to hug us every time we mention His name.

It might be a surprise to some to learn that God is in charge because - well, because he is God and we aren't. And he is not obligated to honor our misguided conceptions of who he is and what he expects of us, both personally and as a nation that has been blessed beyond belief for generations. For these unearned blessings, he has been recreated in the image of a universal collage and set out on an ice floe to die of neglect.

America, as much as I love this country, has allowed sin to become so commonplace and publicly in-your-face it is impossible to not notice America is suffering the consequences.

I was just listening to the first half of John MacArthur's broadcast entitled "A Nation Abandoned By God." This is an eye-opener for those who think God is still blessing America as a Christian nation.

And for a limited time, this is available on CD - for free. Just listen to the broadcast and order your copy while it is available.
www.mercyandpercy.com/

True Revelation

There is so much confusion and contradiction in Christianity today that newcomers to the faith - and even old-timers - can easily be led astray from the true gospel, as preached by Jesus and his apostles, into idolatry disguised and eloquently preached as Christianity.

There are innumerable versions of the gospel message and religious how-to books and websites available. How can you recognize the truth when you hear or read it? By the guidance and inspiration of the Spirit of truth - the Holy Spirit.

Vicki of Windows To My Soul has a food-for-thought post on her blog today. It is titled, "Regurgitation is not Revelation."

Oops. Guess the words food-for-thought and regurgitation are an oxymoron, but they are aptly descriptive.

Vicki is a passionate writer. I hope you will drop by and read some of her posts.
www.mercyandpercy.com/

Living Will

When I hear the word euthanasia, I think of an animal in great pain and with no hope of recovery. I have a mental image of a tearful and loving - or at least a kind-hearted - owner holding the animal as a veterinarian gently injects it so as to end the animal’s suffering.

Over the years, euthanasia has become the acceptable word used to describe killing animals at shelters. In a large part because of irresponsible owners, backyard breeders, puppy mills and folks who don’t want to sterilize their pets, millions of healthy, adoptable animals are routinely killed each year. Many are still stuffed into death boxes and gassed with carbon monoxide. Others are injected. A vein on larger animals might be the injection site, but the small animals are jabbed in the heart. The animals do not die willingly. They are frightened and fight to live. Too frequently workers drag them into the death room. Is this what humans consider a pleasant or comfortable death? Then it isn’t euthanasia, is it?

But the word euthanasia helps assuage the guilt of those who contribute to pet overpopulation as well as those who are responsible for “euthanizing” them. For many shelter workers, killing the animals is the hardest part of their job and they do it as gently as possible; however, there are those who enjoy killing and are attracted to employment where they can legally abuse and kill animals.

Jack Kevorkian, or “Dr. Death,” as he was often called, was one who helped redefine the word euthanize. It is now “assisted death.” At the rate society is “progressing,” it is only a matter of time before “euthanasia” for humans will not only be accepted but required.

When my mother spent a few days in the hospital a year ago, the first nurse she met in her room began campaigning for her to sign a Living Will so Mother’s wishes would be followed instead of (the nurse glared at me) any of her children making decisions for her. I didn’t know much about a living will at the time, but it sounded fairly innocuous. I was considering filling out one for myself, until this morning when I read Dr. Albert Mohler’s blog entry “Sign Your Way to a "Good Death?" -- The Soft Slide to Euthanasia” ( posted Tuesday, October 16, 2007) and Charlotte Allen’s story at the Washington Post, “Back Off! I’m not Dead Yet” (Sunday, October 14, 2007; Page B01).

I had not seriously associated a Living Will with future potential permission to “euthanize” the one who signed the document. These articles gave me food for thought, and perhaps they will do the same for you.

Can what Dr. Mohler and Ms. Allen write about actually happen? One day in the not too distant future, it is conceivable the word euthanize could be as innocuous-sounding in terms of human death as it has become in relation to unwanted animals.

There is a story of a frog that is put into a pan of water on the stove with low heat. By the time the frog realizes the water is dangerously hot, it’s too late. As a human being, and especially as a Christian, you don’t want to wait until the water begins to boil under the pot you’re sitting in. Do some research before signing a Living Will so you can make an informed decision.

www.mercyandpercy.com/