Don't kill us please!

I am writing on behalf of a Bali street dog. When I was just three weeks old my mom was taken away from me and I was thrown into a temple somewhere.*I was so lucky that wonderful tourists came and*threw bits of food at me.* I didn't have anywhere to sleep so I had to make*do finding any shelter I could.** I like the tourists and even wag*my tail*at them unless they throw rocks at me and then I run away and hide.

*Now my stray brothers and sisters have warned me not to eat any food at all because the big people in Jakarta have decided to poison us all. They said tourists don't like us and are afraid of us, so they want to*kill all of us.

They also said one of our friends died of rabies and people are really scared of rabies.

What I don't understand is that a nice doctor picked me up and gave me a shot of medicine against this thing called rabies and he even gave me a new collar and tag saying I am a safe doggie. So, why do you want to kill me?*

I have never caused any trouble. I am not the prettiest doggie on the island of Bali but I am kind and sweet and I chase the rats away.* If you kill me, who will do my job? If you kill me who will bark at the bad people who try to rob the shop I now sleep in front of?

If you kill me all the rats said they will be happy because there will be so many more of them ... and they are big, ugly and dirty.* I heard the doctor say they are more worried about the rats because the rats will bring something really bad called the plague and leptospirosis and*typhus and if that spreads through Bali it will kill many people and tourists will not visit here anymore and then allwho*live here will slowly starve*because there will be no*money coming in.* The silly cats only like small mice and don't chase the big rats away.

*Please don't' kill me just because I am ugly and don't have a garden with a yard to live in.* Please don't put poison in all the meat on the beaches and streets.* I*have*already lost at least*300 of my sisters and brothers who were so hungry they ate the meat.**

Please let us all live.**At the temple I heard a priest say that all the world's religions honor and protect animals . and I am also an animal, aren't I?* And perhaps I will be reborn*as a human and some humans will be reborn as animals.* So shouldn't we take care of each other?

SANDY
LEGIAN, BALI