A tale of two killings: what happened when Idaho police shot a dog and a pregnant woman in one day
Fourteen hours and 45 miles apart in rural Idaho, two stories began. A community campaign led to ‘justice for Arfee’ after a pet’s killing outside a coffee shop. But there is no justice yet for the family of Jeanetta Riley
Mentally ill/addict shot/killed by cops.. public’s reaction – YAWN !
2 y/o dog – shot/killed while alone in his owner’s vehicle .. public’s reaction – OUTRAGE !
Filed under: General Problems
I’ll be “DOG GONE”
Personally, I care more about the dog. Sorry. I’m tired of the addicts that choose to destroy their lives and the lives of others. I have never ever known a dog to do these kinds of things, unless it was diseased with rabies or abused badly by a human in the first place. The mental health system in our country is a very sad failure, this is true. I’m sorry that this person was unable to be helped; I’m unsure if help was even possible for this sad person. And mental illness is stigmatized and hidden under the rug even now, in the 21st Century, which is certainly a shame. But that is my reason for my feelings on this story. I cannot speak for anyone else.
Just which brain circuits of ours are tripped. Most of us can imagine the horror we would feel if the police or anyone for that matter murdered our beloved pet. Like you write, the addict did it to herself (or so we believe) and we don’t have the same set of synapses explode in our heads that we do for the dog.
We’re hard wired to care about one and not the other unless in somehow personally trips our neural circuits.
I feel the primary purpose of Steve’s blog is to try and rewire our neural circuits about people it pain. Emerging brain science indicates it can be done.
In my case, I think he has been somewhat successful in that I now look for reasons to fill a pain medicine as opposed to reasons not to fill it. (However a pain medicine from a pain clinic and another one from a different practice, does still leave me with at least having to consult both practices. And of course the prescriptions were brought in after hours.)