Every Monday on Global Comment, we share the slow, thoughtful, considerate words that our brains – and souls – need but that it’s easy to miss in our busy world. We distil the best of the web and recommend just three links every week that you absolutely must see.
No fluff, no fuss, just three exceptional reads.
Here are this week’s recommendations:
How the “No Kill” Movement Betrays Its Name (Jonathan Franzen / The New Yorker)
Raff isn’t alone in her disenchantment with No Kill. To maintain a low kill rate, shelters in many cities have resorted to warehousing animals under inhumane conditions, and have deflected unadoptable animals to open-admission shelters and let them do the dirty work of killing, the stigma of which can lead to harassment and low worker retention. Increasingly, city shelters simply refuse to accept certain animals, referring citizens instead to private groups. (This is the situation in Los Angeles, where rescue and fostering groups report being overwhelmed with cats and kittens.) A long-serving animal-control officer, who asked not to be identified, described to me a system intensely pressured by No Kill to keep animals moving through it—dangerous dogs and frightened feral cats being placed with unsuspecting adopters, abusive or psychologically disturbed people being given animals without even a basic background check, because there aren’t enough good homes for all the animals. “No Kill sounds great,” the officer said. “But it’s a myth.”
Exonerated, graduated, and ready for law school (Anthony Ehlers / Chicago Reader)
“I feel like I was in a unique situation to help,” Soto said. “I know what it’s like to be wrongfully convicted and stuck in this hellhole with no help, and no one listening to you. I didn’t want anyone else to feel that way. It also helped me grow and learn as a legal advocate; here I was in prison winning cases, helping to get guys home. I knew I had what it took to get myself home. It was a good feeling. These things helped me grow in ways that are hard to define. I’ve become less critical. I learned that power wasn’t always equated with money. There is power in knowledge and words. I learned that and have tried to teach it to others.”
It’s not in the dictionary (ISMO)
@ismocomedyit’s not in the dictionary♬ original sound – ISMO
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Image: Jan van der Wolf