The Killing Fields pt 2

I left off in part I of The Killing Fields with what you can do.  Here are a few such things.  

1. The only study that's been conducted about the effects of irradiated food fed to animals was done so by NASA.  Contact them and request, under the Freedom of Information Act, the disclosure of that study.  After all, you paid for the research and it should be made available to all of us.  

2.  Stop sending petitions to politicians.  And money.  They no more care about you and your companion animals than Bill Clinton did Monica Lewinsky.

Proof in point.  Did you know that budget cuts from the Obama administration to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) have been so severe that funding levels are at an all time low?  He's been very busy spending trillions even in the midst of the World Health Organization's 2010 report that cancer is, for the first time, the greatest scourge we've ever seen.  

According to their annual report, NCI gave only 5 billion dollars in grants last year.  This isn't a political or party rant since I affiliate myself with neither.  But did you know that during the last presidential election, 2.6 billion dollars, half of what was set aside for cancer research, was put into the pockets of political consultants, lobbyists, corporations, unions, and whatever else it takes to win a presidential race?  

Let me restate that.  The U.S. government spent only $5 billion on cancer research last year.  Over half of that was spent on electing a president.  So while your loved ones are dying from the world's deadliest disease, the fat cats keep enriching their lives at your expense.  

3.  Stop trying to get celebrities to join the cause.  I personally know of many celebrities who have lost companion animals to cancer.  So why don't they step up?  

This has always been somewhat of a mystery to me but I think I have a pretty good handle on it now.  The only thing that celebrities give a shit about is image, brand and franchise and they're afraid if they say, 'Hey, my little Dachshund has cancer' then the rest of the non-Dachshund and even non-animal loving community will strafe them with so much criticism and they crawfish.  

I suspect there are a few actors out there who really do care but their agents and the producers of their projects shut them down.  Think about it, if I'm, say, Jeff Bridges...  No, I need someone a little younger even though I love that man.  The Dude abides.  

If I'm Justin Timberlake, another man I have a bro-mance with but only because he's a fairly decent golfer and one of the game's biggest advocates, plus, he did one of the funniest skits on SNL. 

If I came out and said I lost a dog to lymphoma, the shitstorm that would ensue from all of the people (that's most of you, by the way) who lost 'human' companions to the same disease would potentially devastate my career and all of the hanger-ons would shut me down.     

It's a public stigma I've been branded with more times than I care to remember.  'Oh, you're the dog cancer guy', I've been introduced as.  Or the the more insinuating, less kind, characterization that made me sound like a circus carny, the 'Dog cancer boy'.     

I harbor no ill will towards celebrities and still hope we could one day host a 'Celebrity Coming Out Party' for those who lost a dog to cancer.  But that'd entail you to tell your agents and representatives to bugger off, have the courage of your convictions and damn the consequences.  

Next time.  Part 3. Keep the Pol Pot in Your Pants.