A long long time ago, back in my early 20s. I decided there was a time I need to make my time useful. I shouldn’t be getting drunk 4-5 times a week. I should be using that time to read a learn. Head to the library. Get some books and gain some knowledge. My parents have been hammering that since I was a child. Education is key. Don’t be a stupid drunk. Well I did go to the library. I did grab some books. And yeah, I still drank. So now I’m an educated drunk!
I sorted through numerous books and picked out whatever might be of interest. I stuck with non fiction. There was an interesting book that stood out as I read its preview. It was a biography about the man who created the word Genocide. I thought to myself this book is for me. Its about my life and my families and what they been through. What could be a more interesting read than this.
There is much more to be told than what I can say here. The man was Raphael Lemkin, he was of Jewish heritage with many family and friends still back in Europe. He was extraordinarily selfless and determined in his efforts to remember those lost during the Holocaust. Up until his time, what was happening to people was really unknown. The murders on such drastic levels in comprehensible. He needed to put a word, a feeling, an understanding to what was happening. He then formed the word Genocide. For geno – species and cide – killing, these words best dictated and summed up the killings of a specific group of people on a large scale.
He worked tirelessly for hours and for so many years. He lobbied and networked to put this term on a worldwide scale. He put to light not only the Holocaust but many other genocides and my families own Cambodian genocide would share this label. And the saddest thing of all, in this relentless effort to work and cherish others. He only had a few people attend his own funeral.
This goes back to my work. I need to help share the news and understanding of all these pets of ours dying left and right. There are so many intricacies and complex systems that go into the tragedy of pets. On one hand, you have the puppy and kitten mill system providing an influx of animals. And then the carelessness of so many pet owners giving up their pets for nonsense reasons of their own fault. So many scenarios, so many deaths, so many reasons, what could I do. How can I explain to it people. I thought of Raphael Lemkin, I had to make a word that summed it all.
I thought of many phrases, roots and meanings that could go into my word. Obviously pet would have to be in it. And the word -cide would have to be used. I thought of doing peticide, sound too much like pesticide. I thought using the word -us in use, to stand for the word abuse. But then petus has an another ill fitted meaning. I needed to really include the word abuse/neglect somewhere in there. I settled with Petucide.
Now onto the meaning. The word that always came up to me with unnecessary. It was completely unnecessary all the pets being euthanized and dying. It tore my heart. I thought about the word killing but that somewhat implies deliberate. All these animals were being euthanized, but the meaning for that is assisted. These animals were not being assisted in what they wanted to do. They don’t want to die. What conclusion I came too, it was a massacre. A thoughtless and relentlessness massacre of animals. No rhyme or reason to it all, just random and immense despair. The word massacre fits it all. And thats how I came to the conclusion that it was simply unnecessary, it is through the careless actions of people and that on its scale its a massacre.
I released a sigh of breathe to myself after all this. I put the word together “Petucide” in images and on print. It just felt right. We have meaning, we have understanding of it all. There is a petucide going on which nobody is doing anything about. Lets all use and share this word that we can define the suffering of our poor pets. They need our help. We want to end Petucide.
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