Showing posts with label high school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label high school. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Scrappy and Tara. A tale of Good and Evil, where the messenger got euthanized.

To be honest, he didn't behave differently from any other street thug caught in camera. We can see on the video how he hunted the little kid, he heard a noise, looked under the SUV and went around to face his prey.  In just seconds he established his superiority over the victim and went for it.  He was not hungry, he was not under stress, he was in his neighborhood, he knew the kid and Tara, but still he wanted to play rough.  Pets living on the same street do like humans, we look at our neighbors and profile them, Scrappy knew that Tara was serious about protecting one of hers.

Few years ago a group of teenagers, three or four, killed a homeless guy with a baseball bat, right by a strip mall and an ATM with the latest technology in video surveillance, that didn't stop them, for about 5 mins, this homeless person sitting on the floor tried with his arm to avoid the blows to his skull, unsuccessfully.

By sunrise time, the teenagers where in custody and getting bailed out by their parents.  I don't know what happened to them afterward.

This is Lila.  She's also shocked by the news.
Scrappy grabbed his little neighbor by the leg with his sharp teeth and dragged him few feet until Tara ended the game by slamming her body against Scrappy, which confused ran away home.  Hours later Animal Control took custody of Scrappy.  His family looked the other way, probably watching the line of lawyers on Stand-by to present a case against the family.  The owner of Tara and mother of the victim pleaded for the family to rehabilitate Scrappy, remember, in California there is Rehab for everything. But Scrappy's family didn't vouch him out, few hours later Scrappy was put down.  Animal Service officials said that Scrappy tried to bite some employees, according to TMZ.

So OK, Scrappy had some bad temper and a like for blood, but since when kids play on the streets?  That brings some questions about parenting.  Not only vicious dog or vicious cats are on the street, in this case the vicious cat was the good guy, I mean the good girl, What about allergies, infections, pollution, UV rays, all these dangers outside.  That tricycle? Let me check the calendar, are we in the fifties?  Scrappy knew that something was out of place on that street and tried to fix it, but of course, it is easier to condemn the big guy.

We tend to go with first appearances. The cat is the hero, the dog is evil, poor family.  That kid shouldn't have been unattended because if the Scrappy showing up is not a dog but a 6 foot high child molester, nor Tara, nor mommy, nor little victim had a chance, and probably the neighbor would have to bring Scrappy, the dog, to search for little neighbor.

Hopefully Scrappy didn't die
in vain, hopefully this family will realize that we are not in the fifties anymore and kids need supervision if they want to play outside in the 21st century.  Scrappy was just a warning. Consider yourselves warned.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

It is never too early to start caring

So high school was fun.  For those who didn't go to college, high school memories are the best.  Even for some college graduates, high school years were special.  Usually the first love, the first underage drink, even some smoke, the wild parties, the walking everywhere or over occupying a car by three or four times its capacity.  All silly stuff.  The social politics, the anxiety that caused the constant effort to stay in the loop with whatever was going on.  So cool and stressing. 

But there is a group of high school students, that in addition to all the fun aforementioned they have also signed up for a very special program. 200 students enrolled in the school’s magnet program that allows teens to graduate with a veterinary assistance certification.  This has been happening for 14 years at the Felix Varela Senior High School in Miami Dade County Florida.

The school shelters more than 80 dogs as part of its veterinary science program.  Every year about 800 applications are received for this magnet program, only 100 are accepted.  Students enrolled in this program have to follow a core curriculum that includes math, english and science, in addition to hands-on experience, as they have to take care of the animals. An adoption program is also run with the help of Friends Forever Rescue with a yearly average of 500 adoptions.

Right now they are looking for homes for these dogs, since the school will go under renovation during the summer and the dogs need to be out before June 6.  Families willing to house these dogs will have them at least for three months, when they will be able to come to their new installations.

It is great to know that the new generation is preparing themselves as caring individuals, because we need to abolish, once and for all, animal cruelty, by bringing up to the table animal rights as a tenet of the society where we all want to live. 

Students at Felix Varela H.S. with rescued dogs


Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/05/11/4111322/saving-the-dogs-as-school-faces.html#storylink=cpy