Of Dogs And Men

A dog did this - scene from "The Green Mile"

Anybody wondering about what Briton Alison McElwee has to say, or bother to hear her out? The dog was alleged to have bit her four-year-old daughter. Yet she went through the trouble of procuring professional services to put the animal down humanely. Most mothers would have freaked out and done a Lady Macbeth:

I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dash'd the brains out

In a scene from the Tom Hanks movie "The Green Mile", about John Coffey, a giant black man convicted of raping and killing two young white girls, there's an insight about how something gentle is capable of inexplicable violence:

We had a dog.
Just the sweet mongrel.
You know the kind.
Often, you get to love it.
It is of no particular use...
...but you keep it around because you think it loves you.
Caleb, come here for a second. (calling son over)
He still has the one good eye.
That dog attacked my boy for no reason.
My dog never bit before.
But I didn't concern myself with that.
I went out with my rifle, grabbed his collar and blew his brains out.

There are lots of animals in the Tammy horror sorry. One would assume that volunteer groups like Action for Singapore Dogs exist to spread goodwill among men, not turn ordinary folk into warring factions. Throw in a minister of law, a member of parliament and a heavy weight litigious law firm, and you have a cauldron of ill will, boiling over with virulent vindictiveness. What makes this shameful episode so despicable is that the same minister involved has not uttered a single word in support of the accounting for Dinesh Raman, an incarcerated young man who was put down more violently than the canine.

The contract used by animal welfare volunteers includes a clause preventing adopters from carrying out euthanasia "without prior consent of the rescuer". Commenting, SMU law professor Eugene Tan said future prospective adopters may not welcome the rescuer still having residual rights, resulting in fewer dogs being adopted. Maybe, just maybe, that will result in fewer foreign talents who consider setting up home in an over crowded kennel. Freeing up dog-houses in the sky will reduce demand, and reduce housing to affordable levels. There's always a silver lining in every cloud.