Life matters

“She was covered in blood. Someone had bashed her head, tied her up in a garbage bag and put her in the bin in front of my house. It was 2 am, pouring with rain and her screams alerted me.”

So said the woman who had called recently to tell me about the puppy she found early that morning; her tiny paws were clawing their way to freedom from the garbage bag in which her torturer had clearly placed her to die.

Days after, someone informed me of a mass poisoning in Castara. The bodies of eight dogs were found on the beach.

What does one do with eight canine corpses? Take them far out to sea in a fishing boat and throw them, weighted, into the ocean? I have heard from several people over time that it is not an uncommon way to get rid of unwanted live animals – so why not dead ones, too?

A day before hearing of the "Castara 8," I had received a message from someone living in a neighbouring seaside location: “Poisonings have started back in the village. Never know who.”

Mass poisonings happening within such close proximity...An investigative mind might wonder – “Serial killer?”

Putting aside the fact that the average mind may not be too concerned if the victims are "just animals" – does that average mind still not find the quantity and frequency of the killings disturbing?

More disturbing would be if the answer to that question was “No.”

On Divali, someone called me about a small, injured dog lying on the road – clearly the victim of a hit-and-run. He was alive but motionless, hyperventilating and no doubt being roasted on the hot asphalt. How long had he been suffering in the searing midday heat? How many cars and people had passed him by before these two people cared enough to stop, pick him up gently and take him home? After receiving the call, I visited them and the dog, and we called a vet.

"Forgive me," the dog’s rescuer said as she burst into tears. “I cannot see or be near to an injured animal any more without feeling extreme trauma. Not after having had 13 animals die in my hands!”

She was making reference to the part of Tobago in which she had lived until recently, where the poisoning of dogs was/is common. For anyone who cared enough to try and save their lives, the experience would have been unbearable. Having witnessed the effects of poison on dogs, I know how traumatising it is – especially if there is an emotional connection to the animal.

I often wonder about children who grow up among adults who frequently and casually use that form of toxic torture as a way of dealing with issues at hand – anything from “it having too much puppies” to “it bothering my goats/sheep.” What is it like to grow up seeing and inadvertently learning that killing is the easiest way to get rid of "the problem?"

Some mornings ago, I switched on the television. The visual that confronted me was the front page of a daily newspaper, featuring an image of undertakers in white "crime scene" suits, standing at what appeared to be the edge of a waterway. From what I could see of the caption’s fine print, I made out that a gruesome crime had been committed, involving dismemberment of human bodies.

Accompanying this image (which took up a portion of the screen) was the smiling face of the host as he enthusiastically discussed Tobago’s upcoming carnival.

This unfortunately-timed juxtaposition created an eerie yet sadly realistic picture of our society’s psyche. No matter what horrors unfold, the party goes on.

I turned to the e-paper to read about that crime – the dismembered bodies of two men found in a Cunupia stream. The details of what was described as a "poultry-style killing" were gory – eg "the overwhelming scent of rotting flesh emanating from the mound of garbage bags which were close to the leg led officers to believe that it contained the rest of the victim."

How easily life is discarded nowadays – be it babies or foetuses in boxes, poisoned innocents, or head-bashed puppies and rotting human limbs in garbage bags.

Given the disturbing frequency and nature of killings taking place in our society, we cannot continue to disregard the psyche of the increasing number of those who walk among us lacking the capacity to understand that all life – regardless of species – matters.