An interruption for cuteness (and seriousness)

For most of us, we don’t really form a strong opinion on something until it affects us personally. I mean, we may all think that the Darfur genocide is a horrible, horrible event, but it’s not really on many radars. We may not really care about tsunami and hurricane rescue until those huge disasters hit. And who could forget how the United States’ policy on Osama Bin Laden changed after 9/11 — from not capturing him to… well, okay, maybe that last one is a bad example.

My views on U.S.-Mexico border relations were changed today when a friend notified me of this puppy-smuggling story in the Los Angeles Times. There is a big puppy-smuggling ring in Mexico, that brings cute-but-sick-and-not-properly-vaccinated puppies from Mexico and sells them in the U.S. to unsuspecting owners. Doggies can die within a week after coming home!

All of this, of course, makes me sad, even if it’s those effing ugly pugs dying. Because puppies aren’t made to die! And, I mean, sure, there are the liberal upbringing guilt about looking the other way for honest, hard-working Mexican workers — but there’s no silver lining about these puppies. Grr.

Anyway, thankfully, the U.S. government is actually doing something about it; namely, forming a task force:

On Nov. 15, federal agents searching a Honda CR-V at the Otay Mesa crossing found 16 undeclared puppies in three cages that were covered by blankets and boxes of laundry detergent. The suspect, a Mexican woman with an animal cruelty record, allegedly told investigators she needed the money and had lots of orders to fill.

The Border Puppy Task Force formed last year after a spate of complaints from brokenhearted owners who reported their dogs were turning sick and often dying. They were getting socked with thousands of dollars in veterinarian bills. Common diseases include distemper, rabies, parvovirus and ringworm.

Aww! The Border Puppy Task Force! Who’s a good U.S. government form of border protection? You wanna get the ball? You want the ball? Awww go get it!

Err, sorry. Anyway, they didn’t arrest anyone, but a whopping 362 puppies under three months old were found from Dec. 5 to Sunday. And Philadelphia Will Do is coming out strongly against puppy brutality, even if it produces the cutest press conferences in the history of press conferences.

Thumbnail photo made from Los Angeles Times photo by Mark Boster, which you can see full-size (and oh so cute) on latimes.com.

Smuggling of puppies still plagues region [LAT]
Smugglers selling sick puppies from Mexico [AP via Yahoo!]
DarfurGenocide.org, which is obviously much more important that puppies or even bloggers’ rights