Although there's much justified outrage at the unbelievably, atrociously cruel acts committed against the North Vancouver sled dogs, such acts will likely happen again - if not in B.C. or Canada, then somewhere else on this continent or planet.

It's in humanity's fundamental mindset, as a whole, to place animals on a lower category of life than humanity and thus less worthy of compassionate treatment. It began as early as the Bible/Torah (and perhaps even the Koran), all of which promote the sacrifice of animals solely for the alleged spiritual benefit of humanity.

But while this travesty continues, the beautiful reality, as most loving pet owners already know, is that a healing, symbiotic-like relationship can exist between both the (usually domesticated) animal and its human "host." Indeed, petting a dog or cat, for example, acts as a soothing, perhaps health-improving massage to that animal; meanwhile, the loving contact can reduce the human host's high blood pressure, amongst bettering some of his/ her other health matters. The sad reality, however, is that such mutually beneficial couplings are nowhere near as prevalent as they really could and definitely should be.

Frank G. Sterle, Jr. White Rock