Uri supports the RSPCA
(Reproduced with kind permission from
Uri
Geller)
The British are famous around the
world as animal-lovers, but sometimes it is possible to be blinded
by love. My friends at the RSPCA took me on a shocking tour
of homes where pets are kept in miserable conditions —
not because their owners don't care, but because they can't
cope and won't admit it.
I became involved with the charity earlier this
year during my protest against Channel Five's reality TV show
The Farm, which I believe exploited animals for cheap entertainment.
RSPCA inspectors told me that I would be horrified
if I could see behind the front doors of thousands of ordinary
homes, places the camera does not usually go.
I've been a dog-owner all my life, and I know
that the people I like instinctively are usually pet-owners
too. The act of caring for a fellow creature, of lavishing love
upon it and enjoying unconditional love in return, is one of
the most nourishing human experiences.
So I simply couldn't believe there were many
people who would mistreat a pet. A sick few might want to see
animals fight, and a greedy few might breed or fatten animals
in foul conditions, but dog-fighters and battery farmers are
not animal-lovers by any definition.
The sight of two miserable horses, one of them
a Shetland pony, in the tiny back yard of a town house, made
me think again. Their owner insisted she had rescued them, and
that but for her love the horses would be dead.
I am sure she was telling the truth —
but I was bewildered that she could not see how unhappy the
animals were in their brick-walled prison. Horses need to be
roaming fields, not pacing a concrete yard with barely room
to turn.
Our next stop sickened me even more deeply:
eight dogs in a cramped, stinking house, their owners unable
even to take the animals out of the house for daily exercise.
Inevitably the place reeked of excrement and
urine — I had to stagger outside and cover my face with
my jacket before I could inspect the squalor properly.
The couple who kept these miserable pets told
me they loved all their dogs, and I believe them; they said
they couldn't bear to part with any of them, and I do understand.
The loss of a pet is a heart-wrench.
But I was baffled that these people could not
see how badly their love was hurting the animals — and
I was enraged that the RSPCA is powerless to intervene.
Active cruelty to animals is illegal, as the
laws stands. But it is not against the law to care for an animal
inadequately, to fail to ensure each pet has sufficient food,
water and a natural lifestyle.
Anyone can see it's not natural for a pack of
dogs to live in a couple of filthy rooms, or a pair of horses
to be cooped in a yard. It's not natural, but at the moment
it's not illegal. The RSPCA is campaigning for a change in the
law, to enforce a “duty of care” on pet owners,
and I am delighted to be part of that campaign.
Reproduced with kind permission from Uri
Geller