The Czech novelist Milan Kundera, in his masterpiece The Unbearable Lightness of Being, writes:
True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power. ManÂkind’s true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals.
Me, I find ridiculous what the Dallas Police did to retrieve two dogs from inside a locked car (paywalled story):
Danika Shipman said she checked the outside temperature on her phone. Because the day was mild, she and her husband felt comfortable leaving Copper, 2, and Penny, 6 months, in the car with the windows cracked. The pets had just been fed, she said.
They had heard that some dogs have been stolen from cars after the animals accidentally hit the electronic door lock. So they propped the back folding seats down slightly so Copper and Penny would be confined to the back of the 2011 Hyundai Sonata.
The dogs could still pop their heads out from behind the seats, Danika Shipman said.
Dallas police officer called John Shipman and told him to come outside, his wife said.
When he went to the parking lot, “it looked like a murder scene,” he said. Four police cars, a Dallas Fire-Rescue vehicle and an animal services truck were clustered around their car.
Someone had heard the dogs barking, Hill said, and, “after not seeing anything in the car, they decided that it must be coming from the trunk.”
