Humane Society Animal Cruelty Ad Make You Sad? What About Abortion Victims?

LifeNews.com Note: Maria Vitale is an opinion columnist for LifeNews.com. She is the Public Relations Director for the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation and Vitale has written and reported for various broadcast and print media outlets, including National Public Radio, CBS Radio, and AP Radio.

It's gotten to the point where I have to turn my head away when I hear the opening bars of music. The haunting melody is the soundtrack for a tear-jerker of a commercial for the Humane Society. Images after images of abused pets appear on the screen. As the joyful owner of a tabby, I find portrait after portrait of man’s cruelty hard to fathom.

To me, it's quite an effective ad. I want the miserable music to stop, the cats to be placed in loving homes, the crescendo of a happy ending to play. A few dollars a month can stop this horrendous inhumanity? Sign me up to be a donor.

But while watching this spot for the umpteenth time, I couldn't help but wonder: What if cable television ran commercials showing the violated faces of preborn children attacked by abortion? Could viewers stand to be exposed to such brutality, day after day? Would they let the injustice of abortion stand? Would many admit to being “pro-choice,” if those images haunted our television screens?

It came as little surprise to me when cable TV host Bill O'Reilly named “Schindler’s List” as one of the best movies of all time. The film has brought the horror of the Holocaust to the attention of students around the country. There is something about the moving image that demands to be noticed. What if there were a “Schindler’s List”-type film about the grotesqueness of abortion, with an all-star cast and top-notch director? Would the eyes of Americans be open then to what abortion is really about?

I understand the concerns of the mothers of preschoolers who don't want their children confronted with violent images of abortion on street corners. There are some who say that such displays tend to make people angry—often at the people holding the signs.

But if an “R” rating were affixed to a movie…or a proper warning were given before a commercial…is it possible that the reality of abortion finally would be thrust into public consciousness? It seems to me that what keeps the abortion industry going is blindness—blindness of those who do the grisly work…blindness of the women who think they have no other choice…blindness of public officials who are under the misguided notion that they are somehow helping women by defending the aborting of their offspring. And then there’s the blindness of voters who believe that it doesn't really matter if they cast ballots for politicians who label themselves “pro-choice.”

Perhaps You Tube will fill the cultural void…bringing the ugly truth about abortion to the multi-media masses. I have a feeling Generation Y will use video in a whole new way to combat the tragedy of abortion. The drama of life after life lost in the name of political correctness is a heartbreaking movie that demands to be made.

5 per cent of Toronto Humane Society animals in adoptable condition: OSPCA

TORONTO — There are more than 1,000 animals at the Toronto Humane Society, but only 50 to 60 are in any condition to be adopted right now, the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said Tuesday.

The animal shelter has been closed to the public since a raid by the OSPCA last month, when several alleged cases of animal neglect were uncovered and seven animals had to be euthanized.

The society’s former president, Tim Trow, and four senior employees were arrested and charged with animal cruelty.

A court ruling last week ordered that staff and board members not charged with crimes be allowed back into the shelter. About 20 to 25 employees and 15 board members were allowed to return and resume administrative work Tuesday, including paying bills, fundraising and responding to calls from members and donors, said humane society spokesman Ian McConachie.

But doors are still not open to the public, and the development of staff returning to work has prompted questions about when people will again be able to adopt animals from the shelter.

~snip~

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5i7-yP2MQ8ciZthtFwTl-AhClLTnw

I’ve had those thoughts every single time I’ve seen that ad. My daughter just cried and cried about the first 20 times she saw that add. She’s only 9 but I talked to her about abortion. She was horrified. The same reaction I got from my sons when I had to explain it to them. My oldest son doesn’t even like other people who are pro-choice. He’s not some hate-filled monster boy, he just will simply say “he agrees with abortion so that makes him a very bad person”. I don’t know how to convince him that not everyone who agrees with is some evil person, but rather misguided. Both my boys are so tough. Don’t cry when injured in ways that I would scream like a baby. Not sensitive boys at all, but when I told them about abortion, my oldest son cried and at first wouldn’t even believe me that mothers do that. I think people know instinctively right from wrong. They just get brain-washed into believing bad is good and good is bad.

I think you could make a very effective ad showing first babies, then onto premature infants and finally ultrasound images (where you can pretty clearly see it’s a baby) while little baby lullaby music plays or even a song quietly sung. when the images of the ultrasounds start, you overlay with a child’s name and ‘aborted on (such and such date)’. The point being you show these are babies, they are children, and they are being killed. I think that would be very effective without grossing anyone out, and it would also make an impression because you would be initially lured in by cute babies and lullaby music so you think it’s a pampers ad or something.

I don’t disagree that the reason abortion is accepted is because people pretend it’s not what it is. I do think that showing images of aborted babies goes too far. I think there are other ways of changing people’s minds without showing the murder victims.
I think anyone who advocates that needs to be honest about why they would show such images that children might see them, or people like myself who have a problem with gory stuff that’s fake, let alone real murder. If you are angry, if you want to stick it in their faces and show them what horrible things they are doing, you should think about that.
God’s word is spread with love. Life is about love.
You will win very few converts with anger, or spite, or by being shocking.

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