Thank you all so much. I have been miserable all day over this. Ummlila, I have a theory about your and my situation. It's like the young women held captive as sex slaves by that Castro sicko. A ton of money was raised for them, yet ask people to give to causes to fight against trafficking women and they won't. Somehow we identify with the single entity that personifies the whole giant mess - thinking of all the refugee children is overwhelming to the point of paralysis, but one child is comprehensible and somehow crystallizes our emotions. Same with this dolphin - I know the reality of The Cove and mass dolphin slaughter, and it is too much to process, but this single helpless baby brings it all to a sharp point.

UGH.

I think that may be it ... The one individual. Still very sad

When you see what they did to that poor little dolphin for their own pleasure as a mob, you know who the real animals are.

Some people have empathy, and some don't. The ones who don't can cause a lot of pain.

I have no words, just commiserations with your sadness. Humans can be inexplicably cruel at times.

Who was is that said 'one person dying is a tragedy, one hundred people dying is a statistic' or words to that effect? The logic has always resonated with me.

I share your sorrow. The inhumanity makes me so sad it keeps me up at night so I've had to take a hiatus from reading and watching the news. I just don't understand people and how they can be so cruel.

I do a bit of volunteer work for an animal rescue and the stories of the inhumane treatment of domesticated animals is sickening and each one lives with me for days. My solace is that the animals lucky enough to be rescued will no longer have to suffer, so I am comforted by that. And the fact that there are people who share my deep love and respect for animals and continue to fight for them.

I saw this too. It made me sick. It reminded me that while, individually, people tend to be reasonable, sensible and kind, en masse we are too often stupid and cruel.

Colette, all our animals are and always will be rescues (with the exception of the gecko) for that reason. Kona was abandoned, our older cat was a stray, and the kittens were feral harbor kittens!

I saw the headline and couldn't even bear to click through to read it. I can't even fathom what on earth people are thinking sometimes. Mob mentality is a scary thing.

Horrifying and I didn't click through either. Just too cruel and oblivious. I have a built in revulsion at those who mistreat the vulnerable, whether human or animal, and hope that most people share it. If you are more focussed on your photo op than a creature's existence, I don't want to know you.

Unfortunately, my state now has a high number of children who died at the hands of others (frequently those entrusted to care for them). Abusing elders, kids, people who are frail or different is just another side of the same coin.

Tragic. You are not alone, Una.

I just saw something on Facebook that is the positive to this negative. It was a video of a whole pod of dolphins getting stranded on a beach, and all of these people waded into the water and one by one pulled each dolphin out into deeper water. As the video progressed more people jumped in until there were nearly as many people as dolphins, and not one was left out of the water. It was really sweet and made me think of you and wish that you had seen this video instead...

I need to see more of that, Sarah! It sounds heartening.

That bothers me immensely too. Of course I'm upset by violence towards people, but to those that are and should be in our care-animals, people who are infirm or ill, children-I find it especially upsetting.

Here's the video (I think, or something similar) that Sarah mentioned.

http://youtu.be/ekmMD8oYtJ0

Just look at this dog trying to help the fish https://mobile.twitter.com/Min.....36/video/1