STORYBOOK’S TALE OF HORROR PROOF WE MUST LOOK DEEPER
WHAT a cruel week.
While our hearts were already broken over the Christchurch mosque massacre, the RSPCA raids on Storybook Sacred Animal Garden Farm have been a gut-wrenching kick delivered while we were already down.
For years, initially out of their Canungra farm before moving to north Brisbane, Storybook Farm portrayed themselves as the last hope for injured or disabled animals. They were seen on social media as guardian angels for animals, experts in dealing with dachshunds stricken with spinal injury and a home for pets who required a high need of care.
Yet behind the facade of this animal sanctuary, a place billed as a four-legged rehab and retreat, was a house of horrors, where some of the worst neglect seasoned vets have seen occurred.
As the RSPCA raided the Storybook Farm property on Wednesday afternoon, the neglect these animals were subjected to became painfully apparent.
The conditions and injuries pushed seasoned vets to tears and shocked the RSPCA’s chief inspector.
While the human cruelty perpetrated in New Zealand seems to have resulted in ever more divisive political fallout, the animal neglect – occurring under the auspices of a rescue charity – have somehow united us.
Any human worthy of the title surely believes in kindness to four-legged creatures, especially those already suffering from injury or disability.
It’s not that we care more passionately about animals than our two-legged brothers and sisters, it’s just that this relationship is so uncomplicated. Unconditional love is the only language they speak.
Added to the devastation of neglect was the sense of betrayal for owners who took their beloved fur babies to Storybook Farm, believing they were giving them an opportunity for a longer, happy life.
As humans, we have become all too accustomed to the pain and terror we inflict on one another, but to dish this out to defenceless animals is a new level of disturbing.
There has been much criticism of how modern western society has humanised our animals, from dogs pushed in prams, held in handbags, dining on five-star meals, indulging in deluxe day care, or being pampered at pet spas – the line between man and dog has never been finer.
We chat about their social skills and behaviour with fellow pet owners at the dog park like mothers comparing babies at the playground.
We throw birthday parties for pets, diagnose them with post-traumatic stress disorder and abandonment anxiety and treat them with doggy antidepressant.
Our pets are our children, friends and life partners.
Yet the problem isn’t that we love our pets too much, but that we love each other too little.
Dealing with other people is just becoming too hard: men vs women; left vs right; black vs white.
Animals, instead, offer a simulation of the solace and comfort we seek.
Perhaps we need to look at our reaction to the terrible news out of Storybook Farm to learn how better to interact with each other. For starters, political points don’t need to be scored when there is already unthinkable loss and grief.
The sad tale from Storybook Farm reminds us too to look beyond the pretty profile pictures and cute posts depicted on social media; to always dig deep and look beyond the surface story for the facts.
As RSPCA chief inspector Daniel Young says: “What you see on Facebook is not always what the reality is behind the scene.”
In this case, they were images that we now know were distractions from the disease and abuse occurring in real life. In this era of #fakenews, we all need to take responsibility in the search for truth.
But also, let’s remember what it feels like to be united, even if it is in grief. We should not forget our overwhelming similarities in favour of the distractions of division.