Each and every day, I am both amused and disheartened by the number of people who tell me they didn’t know about puppy mill dogs or puppy mills stores (AKA Petland).  However, what crushes me is the number of people who don’t believe me when I tell them about the conditions of the mills, the involvement of the AKC, and the lack of laws to protect the dogs.  Why would I lie?

Yesterday, as I watched World News Tonight, I was bombarded with stories that the majority of people choose not to believe – even me.

Let me premise this by saying none of these examples are meant to outshine the other, I am not equalizing babies and coral reefs.  I, simply, want to show how even when the facts surface in our face, we look the other way.

I will start with Planned Parenthood.  I am pro-choice and while I have never been to Planned Parenthood, I have believed it to be a good place.  I have a dear friend who is a social worker and who has told me that many of the services Planned Parenthood provides are services people could never otherwise get in their communities.  There appears to be a need for Planned Parenthood.

When the allegations of “selling baby parts” surfaced, I was among the first to disregard them.  I chalked it up to the “right” fighting the “left” on abortion.  Another election, another debate on female reproduction.

Yet, yesterday as I watched the video footage they warned could be alarming, I watched with the heart of a puppy mill fighter.  Here was a woman in tears explaining what she saw with her own eyes and her own ears.  I couldn’t help but relate to her.  And, I couldn’t help, but wonder, “Why am I so reluctant to believe her truth?”

Later in the show was a segment on the destruction of the coral reef.  Google has partnered to photo map most of the reefs in the world.  A complete 3D underwater mapping.  It is amazing.   Since the reefs exist underwater, they are also out of sight and few people can see the destruction, so it is all an attempt to PROVE that the coral reefs are being destroyed by the effects of climate change.  In 5 years, they will map the reefs again to show the extent of the damage.  The increased water temperatures are killing it.  Ah, climate change… few people have chosen to believe that truth, yet, study after study continues to show it is real.

Why are we, as a group, so hesitant to believe truths that impact our world.  It bothers me each and everyday as I fight for mill dogs.  Why would I lie?  I have nothing financial to gain.  The fight I fight is for the animals.

I am sure those fighting climate change would say the same.  They are fighting to preserve our world and while I am sure there are corporations at stake, just like the millers, most of the people fighting for the cause are doing it because they believe in it and want to see the world survive.

I didn’t want to believe the horrific things about Planned Parenthood selling body parts, but after watching that woman’s video, I find myself re-considering.  If choice isn’t what is on the table, if people just believe that the back side of the clinic is what needs to change, then I tend to believe her.  I feel like I need to believe her because I need people to believe me.

I am her, sitting in tears, telling people about the awful things I have seen in puppy mills.

For months people in America did not believe what Hitler was doing in Germany and it cost people their lives.  There are so many tragic things going on today and people continue to look the other way.  Are we afraid of what the truths say about us a human race?  Is it too hard to embrace the truths and then look in the mirror at the people we have become?

Baby parts being sold in the back of a clinic isn’t ideal by any standard.  Man’s best friend sitting in filth, rotting away till death should be intolerable.  The ocean’s reef burning into oblivion is not what nature intended.

I often say that we have become a very narcissitic society and as I look at the truths we choose to ignore, I feel, sadly, affirmed.