This is Roxi. 
She looks like she could be my sister, which is another reason Mom found this so heart wrenching.
My mom received a sad and frustrating email this week from one of her fellow animal lovers. Last Memorial Day weekend, a man in New York, for no reason, kicked a dog in the stomach so hard that she died. He is now about to stand trial for animal cruelty charges.
Under New York law (and in most places), this is not treated like a murder charge but more like a destruction of property offense, and even though "aggravated cruelty to animals" carries a maximum sentence of 2 years and/or a $5000 fine, the accused Frank Aquino will probably get off because, according to his attorney, he has a clean record.
There are folks on-line trying to sway public opinion and pressure the officials in Roxi the Dog's town to give Aquino the maximum sentence. You can read about that here: www.rememberroxi.com. I am a little ambivalent about writing to town officials directly, because I actually do not believe that out-of-staters should be directly involved in local politics/government. However, I wouldn't mind going up there personally to try to rile up the citizenry of Putnam Valley. It is outrageous that someone could get away with "walk[ing] over to [a] dog and kick[ing her] like a football." I will attempt to spread awareness to everyone I know in New York, and I think you should too. The next court date is August 11 at Putnam Valley Town Court, if you happen to be in the area.
As I was saying, I am a little wary about out-of-staters coming into my hometown and trying to pressure local public officials. I know that this has, in the past, worked both for us (progressives) and against us. Coalitions with whom my moms have worked have brought in organizers to help with local issues, but it never feels good when the other side does the same thing. When Massachusetts legalized same-sex marriages, the religious Right brought in young conservative interns by the truckload to canvas and work against it. So much for the Republican party standing up for states rights.
And in light of everything that's going on surrounding the Supreme Court, I think I need to state my belief that the courts are not to be actively swayed by public opinion. That's what the legislative branch is for. The court merely interprets the law on the books and sets precedence for the future. Okay, so that's a pie-eyed view of what the courts do, but I needed to state that before I started ranting about the way the Bush administration has been framing the "activist court." All this Republican talk of "activist judges" makes my canine blood boil. Anything that doesn't go the administration's way is apparently an "activist's" work. Well, maybe an activist's/lobbyist's work sure, but not necessarily in the court. (Well, maybe a couple of O'Connor's opinions...) But the Right always makes it look like they are somehow being persecuted by a left-wing court. WHAT??!?!!? Are we reading the same paper?
Doesn't the left supposedly have a whole bunch of wordsmiths on its side? Why then are we always getting beaten up in the rhetoric department? Stop analyzing and talking all highbrow and start speaking some sense to the people out there. But I severely digress...
My charge for today: let folks know about Roxi. Let's try to change the laws on our local books so that the destruction of an animal looks more like the murder of a friend rather than the damage of a hood ornament. A person callous enough to kick a dog to death will not stop at animals and is a danger to society at large. But let's also change public opinion on this matter. I do not need the prisons to overflow with minority dog kickers now. I don't need this to become the next class/race issue. Education and social services support may have also clipped Mr. Aquino's path; I don't know for sure. But dialogue surrounding this issue, as it is with all other issues, always is good.
First of all, I know my mom is torn about telling her friends that I write this thing and having everyone converge and judge us. On the other hand, if we knew people were actually reading this, maybe it will give us some incentive to post more frequently. Secondly, we are torn as to the direction of our posts. We can write about hard hitting political issues (which, quite frankly, a lot of people do very well already), or we can try to scrunge up more bizarre news, or news about other furry friends, and comment on that. (That would be the "niche" blogging we keep hearing we should be doing.) Also, we have recently read that we should try to keep our posts short. On the other hand, we want to keep them meaningful. (I don't want to just report on how much kibble I've eaten today.) (I have eaten my normal 2 cups so far.)
