In response to yesterday’s post, I received the following from Davidson County (North Carolina) commissioner Fred McClure – my reply follows:

“Thanks for writing. However, the videos you see on Facebook are not accurate for our county. There is no terror, no pain and animals are put down one at a time. This has been a propaganda tool for animal rights folks that would prohibit your from owning animals, prohibit animals used in research and make all of us vegetarians. Please do not be fooled by all of this. You can be proud of this county as the biggest majority of animals are put down by lethal injection. We do not take animals from anywhere except our county so don’t know where that information came from. Thanks, Fred D. McClure”

My reply…

Mr. McClure:

I so appreciate your prompt response to my note of concern regarding domesticated animals struggling and suffering in harm’s way. Your words indicate that you care as much as I, so we are on the same page.

I am a Vegan out of kindness and also concern for my health, hoping to avoid heart failure, stroke, diabetes, kidney and breast and colon cancers.

Primarily, I believe that living beings be allowed to die natural deaths, and I am opposed to killing. Always. Thou shalt not kill. I am an advocate for the rights of all sentient souls to enjoy our heaven on earth.

Please speak up for low-cost spaying and neutering and promote loving responsibility toward the 23 million land animals slaughtered each day for profit and the nearly 9 million cats and dogs and puppies and kittens “destroyed” each year in incarcerating “shelters” in our the land of the free, some carcasses sold for rendering into pet food which is totally unwise in myriad ways. We must stop these massacres in our lifetimes to set an example for the rest of our world.

We must speak up … individually. I am a member of no group.

Hopefully, dear North Carolina, once quite special to our family, will become enlightened about this misguided approach toward both our environmental health and our own humane-ness at all times when we sorely need to re-direct ourselves and to educate our children to appreciate all who live.

A close friend of mine is a cancer researcher and brilliant doctor employed by Duke University, and I can assure you animals being used for research purposes is declining dramatically. Technology and scientific strides eliminate such experimentation in this 21st century.

I neither consume animals nor do I turn away from my responsibility to protect “domesticated” animals from death and torture and victimization. Please join me in advocating for what is gentle and healthy and wise.

Again, thank you for caring and for your quick response. You are a Southern gentleman.

Susie