Cruelty to Animals

After my post yesterday, I was amazed at the response - people commenting or e-mailing me about stories that they have heard of or maybe personally are aware of on cruelty to animals. One woman wrote in to tell me of a story of a young jack Russell being dragged behind his owner's car, while his owner merely continued to drive. Another story, also on news24.com is about a man who had an argument with his wife and stomped on the head of her three week old German Shephard puppy, killing it. And then there was the story of the cat in the microwave (I can't even go there, as we had to put my cat down after he was diagnosed with leukemia that started in his kidneys and I am still missing him so much).

My question is this: has this cruelty always been around, but we are now only becoming more aware of it because of new media forums? Or is mankind becoming crueler as time moves on?

This is a subject that I just feel so strongly about - how one treats animals, to me, is always an indication of how one will treat children, the elderly and our fellowman, in general. And if that is true, then solving crime in our country may be the least of our concerns.

Regards,
M.