Making a Stand

Over the past two months, a group of courageous people have found it in their hearts to start a new union that protects animals. They call it CAP and they're struggling to pour it into some legally accepted form.

Now, you have to applaud anyone who has the courage to take on this kind of responsibility. It is not only being a member of a board of a charitable institution and putting a band-aid on a wounded cat or two. It entails much more . . . mountains of paperwork, clearing bureaucratic paths, trying to get funding whether through state subsidies or private donations….you can go on for ages.

They had asked me to join, and although I was tempted, I did decline due to a very busy schedule, I mean, you’ve got to make time for these kinds of things, otherwise why even bother!

That started me wondering, and took me on a small self-analysis trip which included a bit of analysis for the rest of us humans. See, I realized I didn’t want to make time for animal protection. Sounds cruel, don't it?

But honestly, I don’t want to spend any of my rare free time on fixing animal lives. If you want to do charity work you do it because your heart is in it. And my heart is not in animals. Don’t get me wrong, I like them, don’t want to see them hurt, will always feed them when hungry, but there is no love lost there on my part. Animals and me, we simply co-exist, we use the same space, but that is basically it.

They don’t bother me, I don’t bother them, life is fine that way. We just don’t speak the same language. Although I think it is fabulous so many people on Crete do want to put their free time into an animal protection project, it also bothers me.

Really bothers me!

 How many Children Protection groups do you know of, or how many groups against physical abuse on women are there in our area?

Why do we pick up a badly beaten cat from the streets and totally ignore that always bruised child who passes our house every day, or the girl with the black eye? Why don’t we even ask how they are? Is that maybe too difficult? Does that hit too close to home sometimes, or are we afraid of getting into trouble? Why did this paper have to print an ad for baby milk and baby clothes for a home in Iraklion, and why didn’t we even know about it?

 I do sincerely applaud all of you who do put your time into protecting animals, it is an important job, but there are a lot of other important jobs that need to be done as well . . . ones that we cannot show are backs to.

The taboo on women and child abuse, whether physical or emotional, is still huge in our area. We only get to deal with black eyes caused by cupboard doors gone wild. Whenever anyone wishes to start some form of group to protect our area from these "doors," just give me a call.  

That I will make time for!