A picture speaks a 1,000 words, so they say. But this is pretty clear with far less words: When an animal is killed, do not leave it on the road.

Roadkill is not art. Even if you don't believe animals *deserve* proper disposal after their death... Even if you believe they deserve to be punished even after death by being desecrated by the wheels of crazy Puerto Rican drivers... you still have to realize they should be picked up *at the very least* as a matter of public interest, safety, disease prevention, vermin avoidance, environment, aesthetics, pride, sense of right and wrong, etc.

You're damn right I am scolding you. I just have not figured out who "you" are yet. Which public department is responsible for roadkill cleanup?

It seems like nobody... which means someone at the government is very bad at their job, OR someone is supposed to do it... which means someone working for the government is NOT doing their job.

Readers: Please help me zero in on this issue. Who is not doing their job?

I am not saying all of the Puerto Rican's don't care:

A source of mine told me that a horse had been hit by a car this year, but was not dead and needed to be euthanized. A representative of an animal protection organization cried on the phone as she told my source they had exhausted their budget, were still waiting for government funding, and that the local vets refused to euthanize the horse unless they were paid first. Tragic. My source told the rep that she would cover the charges of the euthanization... to get someone out to euthanize the suffering horse immediately.

Some people do care. But if you leave this up to the government in Puerto Rico, you will quickly find out (for whatever reason) that it's quite likely NOT to be taken care of. People here need to learn to take action, and not accept these types of situations from occurring. Do you see any shortage of expensive SUVs, hummers, sports cars, and boats in Puerto Rico? No... this is NOT a poor nation, so it needs to stop acting like one.

Another source told me that a high ranking official at a *Christian* Church asked another member (who volunteers for an animal care organization) why they spend so much time helping animals? The individual reportedly responded something to the effect of: "You have your Church duties. Don't begrudge me my work with animals". Thumbs up to her.

Would you like to add some irony to insult? You have heard the news. Mayaguez will be hosting the Central American and Caribbean Games in 2010. As with an city hosting a big event, you will see the preparations begin including new facilities where necessary and, of course, beautification. So you will see such new items as the one pictured to the right being added to make the city look "beautiful".

But this particular art piece was located only 100 yards was the dead cat, of 10 days of rot and squash fame. So let's get this straight: We are going to build art pieces in the middle of the road to make the city look beautiful, but we are going to leave dead animals on the road to sicken, disgust, & upset everyone?

You know sometimes it takes shocking imagery to get the point across. I recently had the very undesirable task of removing a dead puppy from a driveway. 17 dogs in total with 13 puppies had be dropped off to fend for themselves. Whoever you are that did it... be ashamed of yourself! A day later a *Puerto Rican driver* somehow did not see one of the puppies and ran it over. Hopefully it died quickly if not instantly, since I did not discover it until the next morning. If I had not picked it up, who would have? Would it have stayed on the road indefinitely, rotting away and getting further squashed until Mother Nature (aka maggots) pulled the last of it away?

See the picture on the left. Wait... you know what? I just started to upload the picture and I CAN'T DO IT. I looked at it again, and I simply cannot post the picture of the dead puppy. It's bad enough that it was deposed of into the trash. I just cannot do what others ARE doing. I cannot desecrate the memory of the *life* of this beautiful animal, as short a life as it was.

Be disgusted about this. Help me find out who is responsible. Help me drive attention to this. Help me get results.

Some Puerto Ricans might want to be put on display, standing up after death. But animals do not. Let's have enough decency to get them off the road.

The Insider

Note: One Puerto Rican citizen who cares ensured that all 16 remaining animals found homes. No more died. No more we left to get flattened into the road.