This post is a bit different from my usual posts, but one area of the law that has always interested me is animal law. I know amazing people who work in this area, and I am a long-time animal person, with a history of being involved in rescues. I have gotten away from rescue in recent years, and something happened today that has made me commit to returning to it. I write this post for two reasons. The first is to encourage people to foster and adopt if they can, as well as to spay/neuter their pets -- or just don’t have pets. And the second is to tell the story of a little dog named Koko, who unexpectedly broke my heart today. 

I struggle to read sad animal stories. This story does not have a happy ending, so I caution you on that if you read. 

I peruse a lot of social media sites, which often proves useful in the work I do. While shamelessly doom scrolling on one social-media site, I came across a post by a volunteer at a shelter in Texas. This volunteer posted about visiting a dog there, named Koko, who was on the euthanasia list for today. The post is full of comments from people who tried to intervene. 

I don’t have an account on that social-media site so I couldn’t ask the volunteer questions. I started reaching out to the shelter and to rescues, though, to try to help Koko. His sweet, hopeful face when the volunteer walked in, and the way he closed his eyes and rested his head on her shoulder when she hugged him, it just tore at my heart. 

I didn’t get an impressive response from the shelter, which kept sending me heartless replies until it was too late. They did ultimately send me a kinder note, saying Koko was euthanized at 1 pm today. Given the efforts people made to save him, I’m horrified by that, but my intention here is not to bash an overburdened shelter. They are not to blame for this cruel situation. 

I have never seen this little dog in person, and I am still absolutely heartbroken. 

Poor little Koko was just one of thousands of cats and dogs who were killed today because humans have failed them so. But I mourn Koko because I saw his sweet face and hopeful eyes. It’s always that way, I think, that putting a face to a story changes the story. 

I tried to find Koko’s listing on their website, because I wanted to post his picture here. But, just a couple of hours after he was killed, Koko’s post was gone, erased from existence, as if he was never here and did not matter.  

A list of animals came up when I searched for Koko, each with a highlighted number showing how many days they had been at the shelter. The higher numbers put the animal closer to death. The list was huge, with the innocent faces of cats and dogs, the tragic stories of how they came into the shelter, and little quirks of their behaviour. As big as this list is, it is horrifying to think that it will just keep rolling, with many of these animals vanishing like Koko did, only to be replaced with the heartbreaking pictures of other pets possibly slated for death. 

People are so destructive. Perhaps this is not an original idea, but it is one that seems necessary to state on these facts. We created this situation. There are so many stray dogs and cats because of human carelessness and outright cruelty. We domesticated them, and then we let this happen to them. Laws, where they do exist, are pathetic at best, often with no or minimal remedy for the most egregious cruelty to animals. 

South Texas, like many places in warm climates, has an especially extreme problem with stray animals. There are amazing local rescues that do their best, as do many individuals. But it’s just overwhelming. And so these terrible deaths continue. 

I can just hear now, the people who say not to care about animals because so many people are suffering. I have always found that to be a strange and unpersuasive argument, as if compassion for one precludes compassion for the other, or as if multitasking is not possible. 

This is a law blog, and I am not particularly focusing on the law in this post. But the law plays a part because better legal regimes, stricter requirements for pet ownership, and stronger penalties for abuse and neglect, these might at least help. It is not easy, though, to overcome widespread human cruelty. 

I will thus settle for repeating what rescues keep saying. If you don’t like animals, no problem. Don’t get one. Once you take on an animal, that is a lifelong commitment, not one to discard when you move or redecorate or have a new boyfriend/girlfriend or feel lazy. They are sentient beings who are completely at your mercy, and there is nothing that justifies cruelty and neglect. Once you decide to take in an animal, you have a duty of care for the lifetime of that animal. You owe the animal shelter, food, medical care, enrichment, kindness, and love for the rest of its life and not just when it is convenient. Should something happen to you, you need to have a plan in place for care for that animal. 

If you love animals, please try to help local rescues. Foster, adopt, donate, volunteer. I say that when I need to follow that advice myself. I’ve done it before, and this has inspired me to do it again. 

I type this while sitting next to another animal I found on social media, a small cat who had the good fortune to be saved by a veterinary clinic and a no-kill rescue. As she purrs with contentment, I keep thinking of Koko, alone, in a loud shelter, afraid and about to die. I am so sad and so angry. 

It is possible to feel compassion on many levels and in many instances. For just this moment, mine is focused on a little dog named Koko. Koko died today because humans failed him.