There’s a real joy from being with animals

Star Beacon

February 06, 2008 07:08 pm

— It’s difficult to believe, but sometimes people aren’t all that happy with my work.
The latest criticism came in an e-mail sent to my editor about my news judgment this past Monday.
I ran a story about an overrun of beagles at the Animal Protective League.
Here is the background: Apparently, someone in Ashtabula was told he needed to find homes for about 10 beagles, because he had far more than the city permitted.
Also, the poor animals were kept outside with no shelter.
Rather than find homes, officials believe this idiot, er, individual, took the dogs one or two a day to the front of the APL on Green Road in Kingsville and left them.
Each day, employees would come in and find more beagles around the building.
Beagles, being personable and fun-loving animals, lead workers in merry chases.
So we ran a story on Monday, usually a rather slow day, about the overrun of beagles.
If you remember, the APL said late last year because of space constraints, healthy animals may be euthanized if it endangered the occupants of the shelter as a whole.
This is truly sad. Yes, I am a pet lover. Yes, I have a beagle.
I got my beagle, Casey, back in 1994 at the APL. But Casey remains an integral part of the household, her making certain I am up for her breakfast before 9 each morning.
I hate the thought of those cute, healthy dogs being put down because of space and nobody knows they are even out there. So we ran a story about the animals. It wasn’t page one. I decided to run it on Page A2. It was accompanied by a second story about how people for a minimal charge could have their pooches microchipped, so if they are ever lost, they can easily be identified. It’s sort of a public service story.
I was at the APL the next day when a bunch of cars showed up before the place was even open. I saw at least one beagle being adopted.
These dogs will bring joy and a sense of fun to families for years to come.
And Monday is a good day to run such stories because there isn’t usually a lot going on that day. If it did turn out to be a big news day, the story probably would have been held for another day.
Unfortunately, I got an e-mail from someone who wasn’t happy with the story. She isn’t happy with the APL.
I won’t mention her name since she didn’t submit the comments for publication. But I thought I would share some of her concerns.
Since I said beagles can bring great joy to people, let’s call this critic Joy.
Joy writes, “Suppose they print another APL article and nobody cared.” It was a play on my front-page headline, “Suppose they had a Super Bowl and nobody cared,” because local residents were apathetic on the game.
Joy was happy we published a story critical of the APL recently, about a woman angry because the APL wouldn’t take back an animal after several months.
But now she’s unhappy with the beagle story.
She wrote, “The paper went right back to being an APL press puppet. I’m surprised that in an agricultural area like Ashtabula County, all the farm stories and hunting stories get buried in back pages, while the animal rights people consistently get section A. And I don’t know how many times I’ve seen this paper headline an APL story over a human murder!”
Wow! Several days ago we had a story about people being arrested in a grisly murder, with one suspect being shot by a SWAT team in Conneaut. I double checked. There was no APL story above it. Heck, there was no APL story anywhere in the paper.
Besides, the stories we run aren’t for the APL. They are the agents for the animals. The stories are to get animals paired with loving homes. Maybe we have more animal stories than other newspapers. Maybe part of it is because there are so many horror stories about people mistreating animals, abandoning them in this area. We recently reported on the family that found a box of puppies left in a shopping center parking lot in North Kingsville.
Of all of the animals left at the APL, less than 5 percent of the owners come in to claim lost pets. This is a tough place to be an animal. Somebody has to be on their side.
Joy says we run APL stories instead of other charities. She fails to mention what charities we failed to cover, just as she didn’t give a list of murder stories that got second place to an APL story. If she would e-mail me those lists, I would like to read them.
Joy doesn’t like the fact our hunting page is further back in the paper. Hunting is part of the sports pages, which usually run in Section C. This is pretty common in newspapers. So it is merely a function of the way the newspaper is put together that the hunting is in C section.
Joy apparently would rather see photos of all of those smiling faces of people holding up the heads of dead animals. OK, we may not run the dead animal pics as far up in the newspaper as would bring joy to Joy, but the hunting page runs every week. APL stories don’t.
The farm page runs where space permits, but it too runs weekly.
Perhaps Joy could pull out the hunting page and move it to the front of her newspaper if it brings her comfort.
Now you would think maybe Joy isn’t an animal lover, or at least a live animal lover, but that isn’t true. She says she has taken in animals and loved them and cared for them, which is commendable.
And here’s the kicker. Joy writes, “Really, we do love animals and have plenty to prove it. We watch ‘Animal Planet’ for hours.”
Watching TV is fine, but I’m not real certain watching “Animal Planet” is doing animals a whole lot of good.
If it were true, with all of the people watching “Star Trek,” we should have interplanetary space travel by now.
I visit the animals at the APL. I take them out for a run, dogs who are doing backflips in their cages they have so much energy. My contribution is fairly minor. But some of my columns in the Star Beacon on the subject have resulted in other people visiting the animals there, taking dogs out for walks, petting them and giving them some attention.
And that’s the great part. While it is depressing the way some people treat animals, when people know of a need, the public ALWAYS comes through for the animals. Good for you Ashtabula County!
Those people who are adopting those beagles will give a nice dog a home and it will enrich the animal’s life as well as theirs.
Those who adopt, those who volunteer, those who contribute. They make the real difference.
Joy, maybe some day your local cable or satellite provider will offer “Animal Planet” in high definition. Then while you are sitting there for hours, it will be more like you are right there with them.
Sorry to have to say this. Animals bring me joy. Joy doesn’t.
Lebzelter is special sections editor. E-mail him at bobleb@starbeacon.com. Participate in the poll about this column at www.starbeacon.com. Look for this column under “opinion.”

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