Can't Stand to Hear About Animals Suffering? Am I Alone?

[Juno]

I really don't what it is...when I hear about animals suffering I just feel this intnese electrocuting feeling in my muscles. They are so innocent. I can't STAND to hear it. I want to rip my eyes out and run screaming around my house...well no, but still, the emotional agony is similar. I do resuce of dogs and I read so much about them. It's amazing, they have at LEAST the intelligence of a 4 year old child!! They are so smart and scientists have proven they feel pain in the same way we do and are so similar to us. So why do people hurt them??!!!
It makes me so angry and winded to hear this stuff like the Amish have dog mills and use the bodies of little dogs as fertilizer. I can't deal. I have two beautiful Min Pins who are really my children. Nothing I do feels like it is enough. I donate my money and time and have fostered and rescued dogs, yet it's never enough. It's all I can think about. I can't believe that in NY state hurting a dog is not even a felony. In Michigan and Illinois, I think it is. Meanwhile copying a movie IS considered a felony. Gag, barf eh. I don't know how to filter out these negative thoughts.
I do so well filtering out all others. I've been doing the program for 2 years and have done so well and I'm so much happier and healthier now than ever before, but this just makes me wipe out. I see the looks on my precious doggie's faces and wonder what sadistic psychopath could hurt a living being as loving, sweet and sensitive as them. Someone once said to me that most people don't care about you, but most dogs will love you. That is so true. Sorry, I have a tremendous amount of respect for dogs and still don't know how to cope when I hear about things like that.
Any advice? I guess I can't help them all, but...

[Flyer99]

Hi Juno,

Well, you are not alone in your feelings. I am a dog lover, but love all animals as well. I support a local animal rescue center for dogs and cats that have disabilities or that have been mistreated. I can't watch or listen to stories about mistreated animals. I regularly turn the dial or the channel even when the very sad SPCA ads come on. People that abuse animals should be severely punished but it seems all they get are a slap on the wrist. At least around my area that's what they get. I know it is going on and has been for centuries but I can't take in that negative news. I haven't much to offer except to do what I do and turn off the news story or ad. Take care!

[THH]

Juno,
I too am a fellow animal lover!!!! I love them all, wild and domestic. I even say a prayer when I see one killed in the road. I get angry that people are in such a hurry that they can't stop for a moment to let a goose cross the road with her babies. I've been known to stop and get turtles off the road! I have raised wild rabbits that cats have not killed. I have had to get my dad to come Finnish off a critter that was hit by a car and not killed. ( I still can not kill, even though at times it is the kindest thing to do, my dad is great with one shot!)
So I feel your pain. The good news is you care! You have taken great care of dogs and helped them. The world needs more caring people like you!!!! In the natural world there is alot of bad things that we don't see. Nature takes its coarse with the predator/ prey balance.
We have been told that humans are so smart and wise, but we see the horrible things they do as well. I can only take comfort in what I can do, and know one day people will have to live with there choices they make. Educate your friends on good pet care and always promote spay and neutering. Thats all we can do?! Enjoy the company of nature....its the greatest!

[Paisleegreen]

I don't like to see or hear about animals suffering. I'm with the other posters, I can't watch the commercials about their abuse nor like to hear stories about them as well. I also don't care about the treatment of human beings as well, so it is hard to hear about the suffering in the world and we can only do so much. Just remember that there is a Creator that knows all things and knows of our suffering and all creations suffering. There is a plan, we just don't know it all. So do what you can do and give yourself some peace of mind that all you can do is enough. Take care and kiss those doggies for me. Paislee

[Juno]

Flyer, I know I have to start doing that. You're absolutely right. I can only do so much, the rest I just have to filter out. It's awful that the rescue I work with sends these horrific reports all the time and without knowing what they are, I open them and read them. Eh, it's something you just can't undo. I think about those horrid events for months and even years once I read them. But I think I have to do what you do, start filtering. I can't help them if I'm a miserable mess.
And THH, I pray for the animals on the road too! I want to get out of the car and offer them proper respect, but I think I'll get run over too and I'm sure people would just keep going for a while before anyone noticed. My father is an animal lover too and has saved quite a few lost dogs and dogs stuck on the highway. He even stopped traffic for a stranded Golden Retreiver on a major highway. Ha he doesn't care if people get annoyed. My cousin also found a lost dog and I found his owner. So my whole family is devoted too. But my dad can't kill anything, not even ants. He refuses because he says, "they have a right to live too."
I think things will change, laws will change, but I guess I can't work on that if I'm always a mess, horrified at what people do. I think I'm a big fan of filtering. I suppose thinking these thoughts is incredibly just negative. Doing something is positive.