An adorable pit bull named Angel was seen in a video suffering alleged abuse at the hands of her owner. After the video went viral, Seattle dog lovers — and even a city council member — rallied to help.
Seattle City Council member Joy Hollingsworth recognized the building in the video: a housing complex run by the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) to shelter the homeless. As with much of KCRHA’s work, the facility was clearly lacking in oversight, highlighting the reality that simply putting homeless individuals under a roof doesn’t magically address the broader issues at play, even if that’s the strategy employed by Progressive Seattle. Hollingsworth said she “immediately started triage” to get the dog the help she needed.
Hollingsworth reached out to the building developer, complex management and the Seattle Police Department. She also collaborated with five concerned community members. Their persistence paid off.
The man in the video was arrested (although, predictably, Pro Tem Judge Nyjat Rose-Akins released him on his own recognizance). Angel, meanwhile, spent the night with Hollingsworth before being placed in a loving foster home.
What began as a disturbing story of animal abuse ended on a positive note, with Angel rescued and safe. But as heartwarming as this story is, it also serves as yet another reminder of Seattle’s deeper, ongoing problems that are being mostly ignored. This story only highlights what’s wrong with Seattle.
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Why don’t we have as much urgency saving homeless people as we do saving abused dog in Seattle?
Every day, we walk and drive past homeless people — human beings — enduring unimaginable suffering, trapped in untreated mental illness and shackled by fentanyl or meth addiction.
Take the TV reporter heading to City Hall for an interview with Hollingsworth: he likely passed by a homeless addict on the street, body twisted in a horrifying display of addiction’s grip, after freebasing fentanyl on the corner. When he regains just enough clarity as the high weakens, he’ll likely shoplift a few remaining items from a local Target (since most are locked up now), sell the goods for a couple of bucks and then buy enough fentanyl to keep the cycle going. It’s a vicious cycle ending, inevitably, in an overdose.
So why aren’t city council members, community advocates and the media eager to tell that story? Where’s the urgency, the “triage,” to fix a homelessness crisis that only spirals deeper each day?
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We’re angry about a dog, but not a human?
When I first saw the video of Angel being abused, I was instantly enraged. The idea that anyone could beat an animal, especially a loyal dog, is beyond upsetting. Honestly, if someone even gave my dog D’Artagnan a dirty look, I’d be ready to go to war.
But when I walk past a homeless person struggling with addiction, lying in a pile of trash and human waste, my emotional response is different. I don’t feel the same seething anger I did watching Angel’s abuse. Maybe I should? Perhaps all of us should.
It’s easy to rationalize my feelings: animal abuse is shocking because it’s not something we regularly witness. But human suffering, on the other hand, has practically become a part of the Seattle landscape.
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Seattle normalizes homelessness, not dog abuse
I cover homelessness issues for a living; they’re central to my radio show and book, “What’s Killing America.” And yet, for too many of us in Seattle, homelessness has become disturbingly normalized. If you don’t see a man sprawled out on a downtown sidewalk or a tent pitched in a park, it’s noticeable by its absence. This isn’t normal, and it shouldn’t be this way.
I’m incredibly grateful to those who fought for Angel — they saved an adorable, innocent dog from a miserable life of abuse. But imagine if we tackled human suffering with the same urgency that community members, politicians and the media brought to Angel’s rescue.
Maybe one day we’ll recognize that the people suffering on our streets deserve that same compassion and action.
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