“The question is not ‘Can they reason?’
Nor, ‘Can they talk?’
But rather, ‘Can they suffer?’”
Jeremy Bentham
A night visitor at my front door
A police officer is standing there
“Do you think that you could help us
Catch an abandoned canine out there?”
“Someone told us that you trap dogs,
She’s been all alone for a long time;
And some of us really feel sorry for her,
What's happened to this dog is a crime.
“She sleeps in the bushes by the tracks,
We see her out there almost every night;
We have been leaving her food and water,
But she races away from everyone in fright.”
And now, here I perch by the railroad tracks
A squad car passes, the police officers wave
My trusty old dog trap is already set and baited
I’d like to end her suffering and loneliness today
But after several hours she has not materialized
I tell the police officers that I will return tomorrow
“I won’t give up on her; call me when you see her.”
We all drive off into a black night filled with sorrow
“The question is not ‘Can they reason?’
Nor, ‘Can they talk?’
But rather, ‘Can they suffer?’”
©September 2012, Mr. Ed
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