I just heard a dog fight down the street. It sounded like a very small dog getting into a fight with the two big mastiffs on the corner. Normally that kind of thing would make me run towards it - trying to save the little dog. But it was dark out, 9:30 at night, and I wasn't close enough to have any impact on the event. It was over in 10 seconds. All I could do was listen as the little dog barked and the big dogs barked, and the little dog yelped and then barked even more in an upset voice. Then I heard the big dogs stop barking as they were put into the house. I couldn't do anything about it and knowing that gave me the ability to put it aside and be an observer. Still I couldn't turn off my hearing and not hear that little dog yelp, it still upset me. But when it comes down to it, a lot of suffering happens every second of the day. Just because we don't see or hear something bad happening doesn't mean that it isn't. Does the fact that we don't hear it excuse us from involvement? And I'm not talking just about dog fights obviously. I'm talking about people and animals hurting and suffering everywhere all the time. Who do we go find to help, do we just help the animals because they are helpless and don't understand what is happening to them? Or do we help the people because we can relate to them because they are like us? Or do we stay home and type on blogs? Should we feel guilty about that and if not, why shouldn't we? After all, we sit in our warm safe houses while other animals and people are in cold cages with cement floors or cold park benches with cement sidewalks. How do we let ourselves off the hook? Now excuse me while I crawl into my warm bed and feel guilty. Goodnight