Open Letter to the Zimmerman Brothers

I know this is "old news" but it's been bugging me constantly ever since I heard about it. So here is an open letter to the brothers Zimmerman....


Mr. Zimmerman,
I am not a member of the media. I'm not a reporter, journalist for any magazine, newspaper or tv show. I work as a kennel tech in a small family-owned pet shoppe in New Jersey, who absolutely do not condone the nature of your business, your behavior or the course of action you've followed.

I take care of small dogs, many of them similar to the ones you and your brother brutally killed late last July. I take good care of the dogs and other small animals I come into contact with, treating them with the same kindness and respect that I give my own pets. With that said, it comes as a total shock that anyone could so violently kill those eighty dogs, those otherwise perfectly healthy dogs simply because some alleged expert recommended it.

Wouldn't it seem right for someone who claims to value family, God, religion, and the simple life - as your Mennonite community would have us believe - would also value all eighty of those lives that were suddenly taken? But yet those animals were killed, one by one, with no thought given toward any other course of action. Certainly with no remorse whatsoever. I can't call that being any sort of Christian, I'd have to call that hypocrisy.

What was going through your mind, Mr. Zimmerman, as you completed the task you set for yourself? Did any of them whimper before you murdered them? I'm sure some of them did, a detail that would make you even more monstrous for continuing. Not so much human as a monster. Anyone who could prove themselves that cold, despicable, such a killer with no conscience deserves to be subject to shame. This is how you represent your families and community.

One of you once stated to the public, "I have a thousand people against me." That may have been true at the time, but as time goes on, I believe those numbers will be greater. It's true you have been and still are being judged, but not wrongly so.

There are people who've spent their entire lives devoted to rescuing and caring for animals like the ones you killed. The saddest part is that this entire situation could have been prevented, had you had the heart to do the right thing: spare those puppies from death and let those people find loving homes for them. Instead you let impatience and financial issues take over.

I sincerely hope you never have contact with any other animal again.