Dog and underdog

The Rural Affairs Ministry has confirmed that Star’s remains will be cremated and her ashes preserved in a monument dedicated to her. Am I only one who thinks this is taking matters just a “little” too far?

The dog’s story is tragic enough. She was beaten up, shot, buried alive and later exhumed and treated for her injuries only to die of a vulgar pancreatic complaint. The media drank up the story, slapped on the mushy sound-bites with a trowel – violin solo and everything – and gave their viewers the sentimental porn they were craving: tons of close-ups of Star’s shimmering Bambi eyes, lolling tongue, and wretched, diffident walk. A popular TV programme went so far as to interview her rescuers, hanging on their every word and sniff, and even asking them about their “feelings” when they were digging the dog out (Wow, that’s a tough one to answer).

It all reminds me of the deluge of sympathy Kylie Minogue received after being diagnosed with breast cancer, or the crusade waged against the half-wit who tortured his cat on YouTube. While she was alive, Star even got adoption offers from overseas. According to The Times: “A woman from Canada contacted the Animal Welfare Department to send Star a personalised blanket and the Amsterdam Fire Brigade wrote in to ask how the pooch was doing.” I ask myself, isn’t there enough animal cruelty in the Netherlands and Canada to occupy these people’s attention, or were all the local stories of doggy victimisation just not cute or heroic enough to deserve any emotional investment on their part?

In the time taken for this whole story to unfold, hundreds of thousands of people around the world have been born to a life of malnutrition, poverty and indentured servitude, millions are toiling away at unhappy lives and dead-end jobs, countless numbers are being exploited and deceived by politicians and religious cabals, millions have lost their savings and their homes because of corrupt banking practices, children the world over are rotting their lives away studying for jobs they’ll never land, and innumerable drug users have been driven to a life of crime by Byzantine and antediluvian drug laws.

How could people know all this and still waste so much time and energy rooting for a dog, even lobbying for her ashes to be preserved in a monument? La Rochefoucald provides the answer: “In the misfortunes of our best friends, we find something that is not displeasing.” Everyone likes a victim, and when a dog is drowning, you can be sure that everybody will offer him drink.

Like the workings of a cosmic joke, the next day The Times published an article about all the perfectly healthy, untroubled and uninjured kittens in our country looking for a home. Number of takers or comments on the website? Zero.