Poor Snowball?

Hurricane Katrina has dominated the news since it hit, and deservedly so. Most of the stories are relevant, if painful. Still, there are seeds of irrelvancy in the forest of poignancy. What I suppose could be called "the tale of Snowball" is one of them. And yes, the pun was intended.

Among the thousands of crushing moments from last week's deadly hurricane, one image brought the anguish home to many: a tearful little boy torn from his dog while being shuttled to safety.

It tugged at the heartstrings, prompting an outpouring from around the country of people on the hunt for both the boy and his dog Snowball in hopes of a reunion.

Where is Bush on this one? Sure, we've got untold thousands dead, but this kid probably feels terrible. Everyone knows that the president's job is to make sure people feel good all the time. It's not as if he has a good excuse for not looking for Snowball himself. It's not as if Katrina is a worse tragedy--in sheer number of lives--than 9/11. Oh wait.

A side note: does anyone think Bush is going to declare war on natural disasters?

The story goes on to talk about all of these people who are sad about the boy and his dog. Now on one hand I do understand that he's not too thrilled to be missing his best friend. The thing is, he's a kid, and we expect children to be irrational. Adults should know better. Turns out they don't, as shown here:

"We had dogs that swam the entire time in 4 feet of water and survived," said Parks. "Even cats were in about 8 to 9 inches of water in the upper cages and they swam and survived, too. Just like everybody else, they're survivors."

I want you all to read that last line again.

Just like everybody else, they're survivors.

Wrong. A dog is just a dog, and a human life is infintely more important than a dog's life. I am sorry for the kid, but I cannot get worked up over a few cats and dogs. We should of course, treat animals humanely, but we shouldn't treat them as equal to humans because they are not.

Dennis Prager sums up nicely what is wrong with this picture.

The majority of American students I have asked since 1970 whether they would save their dog or a stranger have voted against the stranger.

A Tucson, Ariz., woman in late 2004 sent firefighters into her burning home telling them that her three babies were inside. The babies for whom the firemen risked their lives were the woman's three cats.

The best known animal rights organization, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), funded by the best educated in our society, has launched an international campaign titled "Holocaust on your plate," which equates the barbecuing of millions of chickens with the cremating of millions of Jews in the Holocaust. To PETA and its supporters, there is no difference between chicken life and human life.

Only a very morally confused age could produce so many people who do not recognize the immeasurable distance between human and animal worth. We live in that age.

Indeed we do, and Snowball has proven to be a perfect illustration of this.