{"id":386,"date":"2007-08-29T18:49:06","date_gmt":"2007-08-29T22:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/?p=386"},"modified":"2007-08-29T18:49:06","modified_gmt":"2007-08-29T22:49:06","slug":"should-people-be-forgiven-for-animal-cruelty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/?p=386","title":{"rendered":"Should People be Forgiven for Animal Cruelty?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MsoNormal\">The last week or so we have heard about a famous athlete who developed and harbored a dog fighting ring.<span>  <\/span>Many animals were critically turned into fighting dogs or were victims of other dogs to the point many of them were mangled or killed.<span>  <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><!--more-->The athlete\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s colleagues are providing critical information that will allow for reduced sentences.<span>  <\/span>The athlete has profusely asked for forgiveness for his actions. I suspect the only reason he has apologized is because he got caught\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6and none too soon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">There is so much I could say here\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6but I will simply make a few comments which I feel is appropriate.<span>  <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">No matter how much someone pleas for mercy, if they did the crime they should serve the time.<span>  <\/span>I can tell you this particular athlete could get up to five years and would have to serve 85% of it.<span>  <\/span>Honestly, I believe he should serve as much as the judge sentences him to with no time off for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153good\u00e2\u20ac\u009d behavior.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">According to Southern Historians, dog fighting has been a Southern tradition for many years in some circles.<span>  <\/span>Not in mine. I am ashamed to say I am even a Southerner when I hear about this kind of animal cruelty being accepted or practiced anywhere\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6but particularly anywhere near where I grew up.<span>  <\/span><span> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">There are simply no excuses for this kind of behavior.<span>  <\/span>I suspect this man not only encouraged this kind of activity, but he likely has other aggressive behaviors that need to be addressed.<span>  <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">I do believe, however, that once someone pays for their actions, they have fulfilled their duty to society and should be given a chance to redeem themselves by leading a more appropriate lifestyle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">I am very grateful to the person or persons responsible for brining this man to justice.<span>  <\/span>I just hope our legal system will not fail us this time.<span>  <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><strong>My wish for you today<\/strong> is that you advocate for anyone or anything that can not do so on their or its own. Stand up for what you know is right and don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t turn your head just because you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to be involved.<span>  <\/span>Much of what you report can be anonymous and it can be a tremendous help to those in need.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"> ~ Joellen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The last week or so we have heard about a famous athlete who developed and harbored a dog fighting ring. Many animals were critically turned into fighting dogs or were victims of other dogs to the point many of them were mangled or killed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}