One Christmas morning, years ago, Washington, D.C., was covered in a thick sheet of ice. Nothing moved. Well, almost nothing. The Washington Humane Society was open, and its volunteer drivers, of which I was one, were on call.

A call came in: A dog was lying on the ice beside a house.

At the address, I managed to crawl across the skating-rink lawn and up the ice-covered steps. Two men answered the door. Behind them, in the warm room, was a decorated tree. Holiday music was playing. The men pointed to the side of the house, shivered, and closed the door quickly.

The dog was lying on her side, heavily pregnant and very scared. She tried to scramble up when she saw me, but she couldn’t. Her front legs had been smashed by a car, and broken bones protruded through her skin. She weighed more than 70 pounds and couldn’t walk a step. Now what?

I crawled back to the house. Would anyone be able to help me? The men shook their heads. They weren’t going out in that weather to touch some dirty mutt. That was my job.

It took me a long time to administer the sedative, wait for it to kick in, then gently push and pull her across the lawn and up into the van. I don’t know exactly how I managed it, but I remember sitting there, afterward, crying, listening to that blasted holiday music coming from the house.
The image of people turning their backs on Christmas morning to the plight of a stray dog, her legs shattered, never fades.

Sometimes, despite a lot of talk about “Christmas spirit,” we forget how important individual acts of kindness are. This year, let’s hope the number of people who shut the door in the face of suffering keeps getting smaller.

For the animals,

Ingrid Newkirk
President







Abandoned to Die
When Frank’s human family moved, they left him behind—in an airline crate with no food or water. Days passed before a kind neighbor discovered him and called PETA. When we arrived, Frank, frightened and hungry, was so thin that his bones were clearly visible, and he cowered from even the most gentle touch. Now, Frank lives with a loving family and has learned to trust people again.