Grrr.

And, as always, it's one step forward and two steps back for animals in this nation. Just a day or two after national news is reporting on Maine's domestic abuse law which has been expanded to protect pets from abusive spouses, this is reported.

The nutshell version, Salt Lake City, UT has a law restricting people to 2 dogs. Ms. Janet Lane had 7, 5 of which were fosters, and was hauled into court. When she refused to dump the extras, she was brought back up on contempt charges, at which point the judge (Judge Stephen Henriod) stated, "She should have taken a gun and shot the other five before she came back to court, if she didn't have any other options. This is serious. She's going to jail today."

Yeah, way to go, Judge. We're trying nationwide to end abuse and neglect of animals, to place homeless animals, and not only are you persecuting a woman that's only trying to do good by fostering these homelss dogs, you're advocating that she shoot them.

VIOLENCE TOWARDS ANIMALS LEADS TO VIOLENCE TOWARDS PEOPLE. The link is unmistakable. Serial killers generally start by torturing and killing animals, before they move up to people. The boyfriend or husband that beats the family dog will very often move up to beating his wife and/or kids as well. It's not "just a dog" - ending animal abuse is an important first step towards curtailing violence towards people - especially systematic violence such as domestic abuse. If you stop them when they beat the dog, they'll never have a chance to escalate to beating the kids.

And now you have someone in a position of authority advocating the killing of five dogs in a violent manner, for absolutely no reason whatsoever. The director of the Humane Society is now petitioning the bench to have this judge removed - as he should be - though I doubt he will be.

After all, it's "just a dog", right?