Baghdad Puppy Ratchet is Free to Go to America
Article by Deborah Haynes.
Original Article here...
A stray puppy befriended by a US soldier in Iraq has received the green light to move to America to be reunited with his owner.
A rescue operation to fly Ratchet the dog out of Baghdad failed today, however, partly because of a lack of communication between a pet rescue group and the military. The pet is now set to leave as early as Sunday.
Specialist Gwen Beberg, who adopted the black pup in May after helping to save him from a burning pile of rubbish, was delighted at the news.
“I am thrilled that Ratchet is going home!!” she wrote in an e-mail to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals International, which stepped in to assist her four-legged companion.
An online petition urging the US military to allow Ratchet to relocate to America also gathered almost 50,000 signatures. ...
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(a) Thank you to everyone who signed the petition!
(b) While I'm truly excited that Ratchet has been granted leave to come to America, I wish that reporters and the SPCA would lay off from criticizing the military for having this rule in the first place -- and for not dropping everything else to see that Ratchet gets top priority. We cannot blame them for creating rules, even this rule that soldiers may not adopt foreign animals. With the risks and sacrifices implicit in their daily life, I cannot help but to understand their need to put the safety of their people and the mission first. However, I hope that they reconsider this rule, and in doing so, find some balance between the valid importance of their specific purpose overseas and the overarching heart of that purpose: compassion and justice for the innocent. We cannot afford to be so emotional that we get distracted from our goal, spread ourselves thin and fail to accomplish our goal -- yet we also cannot become so focused on our goal that we ignore the heart of the cause that started it. Admittedly, not every animal can be saved, but that doesn't mean we can't have the heart to try when it's possible. Praise God for the people who refuse to do nothing when they see injustice.
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