I want to tell you about a horrible, horrible pet essay that is causing a flood of complaints. The essay,
You can certainly click through and read for yourself, but here is my recap:
Woman hates pets but has them anyway. Woman hates fearful cat. Woman hates untrained dog. Woman suddenly “loves” dog after he accidentally chases away cat.
While the cat likely suffered a terrible fate, the woman and family are happy the cat is gone. A photo shows them all smiling, with said dog at their feet. (I wish I could photoshop in a grave for the poor kitty.)
The whole thing is cast in a Marley-esque attempt at humor, but what’s funny about hate? Really, I ask you.
Plus, and this is purely from a narrative structure perspective, there is NO moment of transformation in the essay. The main character, the writer, is still painfully self-absorbed, still loves her expensive shoes, still is happy the cat is gone, still only tolerates the dog she calls a “genius” for making the cat go away.
A wave of outrage is building — both in the writing community (which is heavily pet-loving) and in the humane community — over this poor attempt and humor and those who chose to publish it. Not only are people blasting the writer and editors and canceling their subscriptions, they are organizing letter writing campaigns to the pet-related advertisers … which, for some, includes threatening boycotts of products and companies for advertising in a magazine that would publish such rubbish.
For example, the Pedigree Foundation was running a banner ad above the essay online last week. Do you think they know the essay is so clearly anti-pet, anti-humane? Many people I know want to make sure they do.
At one point last week, it seemed that the comment function on the website had been turned off because it would not allow site visitors to this essay to register, which is required to comment.
BUT, some of us found a way around it by registering from the main home page, then going to the essay to comment, it seemed to work. At last check, there were more than 100 complaints posted.
That was last week.
This week, the online version with comment functionality has been pulled. If you try to click on the page, you get an error message saying the page cannot be found. So, the only option is to read the actual magazine or this page link (also noted above). However, neither allow comments easily.
BUT, as I said in my comment, what’s next … parenting advice from people who hate kids? funny stories of elder abuse?
Seriously, if you don’t like pets, don’t have them. Save us and the animals the torture.
***
Ladies’ Home Journal
375 Lexington Avenue, 9th Floor
New York, NY 10017
** For some reason, they do not publish letters to the editor, but you can still write them to express your displeasure.
The Pedigree Adoption Drive Foundation
PO Box 683006
Franklin, TN 37068-3006
Bayer Animal Health Division (Bob Walker, Bob.Walker.b@bayer.com)
12707 Shawnee Mission Pkwy
Shawnee, KS 66216
Iams (petcare.im@pg.com)
*** Added a few more advertisers to contact around lunchtime:
Furminator (info@FURminator.com)
Comfortis (owned by Eli-Lilly — 1-888-LillyPet)
The Goodlife Recipe dog and cat food (owned by Mars). Online contact form.Frontline (owned by Merial) (corporate.communications@merial.com)
Hey I just got through with the pages, I should say Pretty nice work done there.
Ugh – that is appalling. Hopefully these people will never get another pet, ever! (And why has having a huge, untrained, out of control dog suddenly become “cool”?)
I could only get so far in the article before they required me to register, but I am thoroughly disgusted. God forbid she never be invited back to the Hamptons because her dog peed on a bush! All I can say is what the hell were they thinking by publishing this article???
Wow, thanks for the ‘heads up’. I’m not going to read the article…I will just get really angry! I will, however, contact those you listed to voice my displeasure…what were they thinking? Or, WERE they thinking at all??