On Animals, Terrorists and Free Kibble

Keith Stansell, who was held captive by the FARC for five years in the jungles of Colombia, was interviewed by Robin Meade of CNN yesterday, and I recorded it and transcribed most of it, only to find this morning that CNN had done that for me.

I was going to go in depth into Stansell’s description of being chained and locked up "like a dog," and then his pronouncement that his captors didn’t "recognize humanity, they don’t recognize human rights. They’re animals. They’re terrorists."

They’re animals. Their terrorists.

Then I thought it would be in poor taste to deconstruct Stansell’s remarks, so I’ll just let them stand.

On a much happier note, Mimi Ausland, a 12-year old, animal-loving girl from Bend, Oregon, started a site called FreeKibble.com, initially because she heard of the many dogs who have been left homeless due to foreclosures and other financial difficulties. She set out to get kibble donated to the Humane Society of Central Oregon, where she volunteers, and when the publicity and donations increased, she broadened her area of service to Furrytale Farm on Bainbridge Island, and now she’ll be going countrywide with the help of Zootoo.com (which I wrote about last November).

When you go to the site, you answer a trivia question, and 20 pieces of kibble are donated (that number will increase) to a dogs in shelters. You can also click on a separate button to help cats ("click here to feed cats too!"). Ausland’s story is sweet and you can choose to get upset that the kibble is made from animals and not participate, or you can choose to participate and feed some cats and dogs.

And don’t forget to click and shop (if you need something, like the jazzy Wipe Your Paws mat that I could use) at The Animal Rescue Site, and even send e-cards from there. It only takes a couple of seconds, and they have a "Shop Green" section  with organic and fair trade items.