The stories of Pinky and Daisy are far from similar, not yet at least, and here is hoping the tales of these two animals never merge.
Pinky is what marine biologists are calling the rare albino dolphin that has been sighted a number of times swimming in Lake Calcasieu, an inland saltwater estuary, between the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Charles, La. in the extreme western part of the state. The pink marvel has been featured in a number of newscasts and in newspaper stories after a charter boat captain first spotted the dolphin and took its picture. Now Pinky is a star, and scientists hope that people will just leave it the hell alone.
Not such a great fate came recently for Daisy, or Dasy, however its name was spelled. Daisy was a therapy dog for retired Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell. The dog’s name was taken from the names of his teammates who were killed in Afghanistan.
Luttrell was the sole survivor of a four-person intelligence gathering team that was “sneaking and peeking” on Taliban fighters during a 2005 mission. All but Luttrell survived a clash with the Taliban. He later received the Navy Cross for his heroism. He wrote a book about the ordeal called “Lone Survivor” which was a best-seller. The SEAL received severe wounds and later was given the therapy dog, Daisy.
I first heard the story of Daisy’s own ordeal this morning from an unlikely source: Glenn Beck’s radio show. I say it’s an unlikely source because as I have mentioned here before, I think Beck is among the creepiest of the right-wing radio creeps. His most recent rants as mentioned in yesterday’s post: Beck’s insistence FEMA is building concentration camps to house Obama’s detractors.
Nonetheless, I heard Luttrell telling the story about Daisy on the way to work and finally had to turn the radio off because I needed to get inside my office. The jist of what seemed to have happened is that Luttrell is a light sleeper. He saw some headlights near his property and heard a gunshot so he went out, armed, to check it out.
Luttrell discovered some “good ol’ boys who were yukking it up after killing a dog. The dog was, of course, Daisy. The men who shot the dog left and Luttrell called 911 and followed the men in a chase through four counties, which appear to be in East Texas. I say appear because Luttrell mentioned this morning that he chased the men to the “Lake Livingston or (Trinity) river bridge). After learning Luttrell lives in Texas I put the two together since I am familiar with the area plus it would not at all surprise me that the types of yahoos who would shoot a dog for no reason could be found in that particular area.
I have not seen much on the ‘net as far as news stories about Daisy’s death. Not to be cruel but usually reporters will drive over their mothers to do a story about murdered pets (of course as a service-type dog Daisy was much more) because animal cruelty stories — and I say this from experience as a former full-time news person — get more attention from the public than do stories of human deaths. It appears from what little I have read, however, the cops arrested the yahoos and Luttrell is understandably upset both over the dog’s death and the lack of meaningful punishment the men will get if convicted. If I have the intent from that last sentence incorrect, I apologize, I know that is how I would feel.
The Texas Penal Code makes a lot of exceptions when it comes to punishment for animal cruelty so I am not sure how much if any time the men would get for killing Daisy if convicted. From just glancing at the code it would appear the low-lifes who killed the dog probably would get no more than a year in jail and could possibly get a probated sentence. Animal homicides are literally “misdemeanor murders.”
Back to Pinky. I fear that the same type of scum who are so twisted that they derive pleasure from going out and slaughtering dogs or other animals would have no qualms about killing a rare dolphin. I live between Lakes Livingston and Calcasieu and, while I grew up in the area and it has a ton of great people, we have some real losers as well. (See “James Byrd Dragging Death”)
It is doubtful that the law will ever sufficiently punish those who are cruel to animals so whether or not you believe in karma perhaps take comfort that justice sometimes is found in the form of the old proverb: “Do not dig a hole for someone else; you yourself will fall into it.”