Ignorance is bliss?

 I dont have any kids but i'd think that when you have a baby you are looking around for other people with babies, kindda to compare notes or something. Exactly one year ago i visited my native Puerto Rico with  my husband and my fluffy white prima donna dog Marzipan. Walking around with your dog makes you aware of all the other people with dogs. You want to check them out, pet them and hopefully a fun doggy date will come out of it. What I saw were so  many stray dogs hanging around everywhere, the streets,the beach, next to dumpsters. Everywhere i looked i'd see these sad sad faces. Mangy and flea riden i wanted to keep them away from my marzipan .It was  really disturbing.   I started researching why? whats going on?  I found a website called "save a sato" Save A Sato is a non-profit, all volunteer organization dedicated to easing the suffering of Puerto Rico's homeless and abused animals. "Sato" is slang for street dog. Save a sato rescues Satos from the streets and beaches, give them medical care, food and shelter, and plenty of love. When they are healthy,they send them to one of their shelter partners for adoption into loving homes.  On their website I read that there are over 100,000 homeless dogs in puerto rico, why? People just abandon them because they become an inconvenience.There is a documentary about this called "100,000". The producers travel all over the island investigating why people are doing this and the social impact, you can get a link to watch the documentary here: http://100000movie.com/FAQ_FGOC.html Animal abuse is rampant in Puerto  Rico - read this article and you will be apalled at the atrocities.The local government has demonstrated a shocking lack  of compassion. "This was an isolated incident"is their  claim. http://fortheloveofthedogblog.com/news-updates/animal-abuse-rampant-in-puerto-rico#comments  Ignorance is bliss, I lived in puerto Rico the first 17 years of my life and was never aware of this problem. I left Puerto Rico feeling deeply disturbed. It makes my blood boil to think that people can be so indifferent . Do they not have some kind of moral compass?  I was disapointed at myself for not being aware. Upon my return home to NYC, I attended an amazing goal setting workshop. There were about 20 of us,  everyone shared their goals, be a better mother, have better relationships with family, to marry or not to marry... It got quite emotional and when it was my turn to dispel my grandiose goal I opened my mouth and what came out was... "I want to be an animal activist" ...... "and a yoga instructor"  I went home thinking what the hell? Subconciously, I had decided that i wanted to advocate for those without a voice. As Harriet Beecher Stowe once said: "It's a matter of taking the side of the weak against the strong, something the best people have always done."  I choose not to be an ignorant ass anymore,they say you can make change happen one person at a time.During the last year I have read countless articles and books about animal abuse. It's horrifying the things that are happening not just in Puerto Rico but also in the continental United States . 99% of animal products we consume come from factory farms.  That is another scary subject... Paul Mcartney once said "If slaughterhouses had glass walls everyone would be a vegetarian" And so begins my journey into veganism or is it vegatarianism?.......