“You can’t reason with the unreasonable,” my father says. He usually shakes his head and makes this statement as I finish complaining about how crazy people can be and how they do or say some of the dumbest or meanest things in order to get their way. When will I ever learn?
My most recent dive into insanity began innocently enough with Facebook a few months ago. I was lurking around reading about all the wonderful activities my friends were involved in while I was sitting at home being envious of their action-packed lives. I noticed that one of my friends had liked a page about rescuing animals in my area. The page looked promising. It appeared to be set up to help our local animal control shelter find homes for its animals.
A Kill Shelter
Sadly, ours is a kill shelter, so I figured this page was a great way to get the word out there about these animals. So many of our community members don’t seem to be aware this place even exists and animals sent here usually have only 5-7 days before they are put down. I instantly liked the page and began sharing photos with my friends hoping someone would be able to adopt these poor babies on “death row”.
Every few days, new photos were posted and I dutifully shared them. With tears in my eyes, I read the captions on the photos of the ones who didn’t make it and I vowed to help spread the word. I was part of the process and felt great every time someone posted the word “SAFE” in the comment box on the photos. That meant that someone had rescued that poor animal. My husband and I had already rescued two cats from there and had taken in two strays as well. We have three dogs too. As much as I wanted to personally save another one, common sense overruled. We had as many as we could reasonably take into our home, but at least I could share the page and the photos with others. And I did.
The Downward Spiral
And then “IT” happened. You know what I mean: that one event that sends common sense spiraling down the drain. The owner of the page posted an angry message claiming the local sheriff ordered the animal control workers to euthanize 17 dogs in retaliation for an “illegal” adoption of a pit bull mix. The shelter has a policy that doesn’t allow adoptions of “bully breeds”. Somehow, one had escaped under the radar and was in a new home in another county. His new owner refused to return him and because of this, the page owner claimed, the dogs were “slaughtered.” She was outraged, and after reading her message, so was I! I wasn’t the only one.
Within hours, word had spread and more and more people liked the page. Messages were sent to friends and those friends sent messages to more friends. The number of people who clicked “like” continued to grow and grow and with all the people came the comments.
Most of the comments were supportive, at first. But the supporters soon took on a mob mentality and began making personal attacks, not only on the sheriff, but on ALL of the residents of our town.
Nasty Comments Grow
The ugly comments grew more vindictive by the hour. The more I read, the angrier I became. I was born and raised here and these remarks were far from the truth. I wasn’t the only offended one. Someone else posted they did not like the personal attack on the people of our town. I followed suite, posted something very similar, and asked that they not alienate the very people who were trying to help these animals. I hoped the administrator who stated several times on her page, “This is about the ANIMALS!” would get rid of the trolls AND the vile comments.
However, the strangest thing happened. Instead of the comments being removed, she removed all of the ones expressing concern about the rude comments. She also removed the comments from people standing up for the town and expressing their concerns as to WHY she would allow these bad things to be posted!
My Dumb Mistake
This was the point where I made a serious mistake. I made the assumption I was dealing with a reasonable person. Are you laughing at my stupidity now?
I privately messaged her and asked why she was allowing very ugly comments but deleting the supportive ones. Comments asking people to be kind and not blame ALL residents had disappeared. I stated that her actions were causing me to question her true motives. Was it really about finding homes for these animals or running down the people of our town? I also wrote that with this lack of objectivity, she was going to do more harm than good by alienating the very people she needed to help her. After all, she was from an area three hours away from us!
I got back a short reply denying she had deleted anything. Of course, she had, I replied. Not true, she claimed. With just a few messages back and forth, I became “the enemy” and she declared I was against her and her cause.
With sudden realization I was dealing with someone not quite on the same level of reality as me, I told her I didn’t want anything else to do with her. “Leave me alone,” I wrote. At that point, I blocked her from messaging on Facebook.
A Personal Attack
She wasn’t done, however. She wrote about me on her page, even posting my name, claiming, “It’s not about you!” She tried very hard to convince anyone following her page what an animal hater I was. Just like sharks that swarm with the smell of blood, a few more trolls came out of the woodwork to write ugly posts aimed at me. I unliked her page and made some public Facebook apologies for possibly leading any of my friends in her direction.
The good news is that with so much mud-slinging and many, many posts, my name is lost somewhere in the muck and likely to have been seen only briefly. Besides, I have my privacy settings adjusted on my Facebook just so I don’t have to worry about harassment from these poor, misled, raving lunatics.
A Bit of Good News
Another bit of good to come out of it is now more people are aware of the issues and want to help. I found out that some of the local middle school students volunteer at the shelter every day. Others are going there to adopt new pets too.
What I find sad, however, is that hundreds of people around the country were outraged about the dogs being euthanized, yet the shelter remains full and has been full throughout this ordeal. Where are all these people when it comes to actually adopting these animals? When close to two thousand people “like” a page, shouldn’t it be a piece of cake to adopt out fewer than 100 dogs and cats?
The Animal Control and local Sheriff’s Office have taken a public lashing over this incident, but what are they expected to do? They have limited space and resources. People don’t take care of their animals, not just here, but all across the country. Puppies and kittens are born at shelters due to irresponsible owners who won’t have their pets spaded or neutered and most of the animals at our shelter right now are there because of “owner surrender.” That means these babies were people’s pets, but are no longer wanted.
All About Good Intentions
I have no doubt that everyone involved had good intentions. Whenever someone clicked the “Like” button on a page to help these animals, it was with “good” intentions. When they tell the world that the “people of (insert town here) are going to Hell,” it was with good intentions. The administrator of the page clearly thought her intentions were good, as she ranted in all capital letters, “IT’S NOT ABOUT ME. IT’S ABOUT THE ANIMALS!” In fact, my intentions were certainly good as I supported and shared the photos of those poor, unloved pets. But did any of this actually save a single animal? It’s doubtful and that makes me ashamed of myself.
There’s another old quote I’ve heard my dad say many times. “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.” It echoed through my head when I realized just how stupid I was to think clicking a “Like” button was going to make a difference. From this point on, I’m going to be very careful about what I like on Facebook and I’ll be donating my time and money to our local shelter every chance I get. Actions, after all, really do speak louder than words.