If you don't care about the context and don't want the spoiler, click here for the challenge info.
My pal @abortedclone rightly brought up that the situation that caused these voicemails to exist in the first place is a little maddening, and I don't want to shit in your cornflakes. All I want is for you to have fun making beats out of people calling me names. As he says, "No amount of aggravation detracts from the urge to sample that 'Karma... Karma will find you' line over and over." Hell, you could probably throw a few of your own insults in there - as long as it sounds rad, I don't care.
This is more information than you could possibly ever want about something that affects your life in absolutely no way.
As you may know, I run an animal welfare non-profit in all of my copious free time. We deal with criminal abuse against animals. Nothing else. At all.
Back in 2007, I forwarded something on that could have been considered relevent to a few people who were interested in the story of a particular dog. They forwarded it on, stripping out my included "fwd" headers, so it got attributed to me. I knew *nothing* about any of this as it was happening, by the way. Suddenly my phone started ringing off the hook and my voicemail was filling up with humaniac nutbags.
Lucy the pitbull, where all of this started, was on death row, scheduled for euthanasia. She had allegedly attacked a few dogs, kids, mexicans - I have no idea. I don't fucking remember anymore. Anyway, she bit/killed someone or something(s) and for some reason, the animal lunatic community rallied around her, trying to get her spared, including creating a petition, (because we all know how petitions are critical instruments of social change).
The email that I had forwarded on suggested that Lucy may have had a history of attacks and claimed to have proof of this. No, I did not verify it. I sent it on to one person who had been keeping people who cared updated.
Below is my recap of what happened, shortly after all of this went down, in Dec 2007. Read it, or don't. With or without context, the voicemails are funny to me. Please understand, this is not meant to make me look like a victim or a matryr or anything. I just stumbled back onto the voicemails today in my Sent mail, and though they were hilarious.
THE CHALLENGE: If you are a music nerd (or even if you're not) and would like to mix the voicemail mp3s into something hilarious and awesome, please do. I might actually take a stab at it myself and my beats are mad weak. I can hear it now... "You are a coward. You are a coward. Coward. Coward. Dirty scumbag bitch. Coward" set to Junior Vasquez.
If you submit something, I'll post it here. Or maybe even on snipe.net properly. I'd prefer if the actual details of the situation were not made a focal point though - it's too confusing, and frankly kind of a drag. Have fun!
To submit, just post a link to the mp3 to my Twitter account, or email to snipe@snipe.net.
The Lucy the pitbull in CA thing has gone haywire. I fowarded something that later got attributed to me, and my inbox has been flooded, and my phone has been ringing off the hook with angry calls and emails. The attached are two of my favorite voicemails out of the batch.
I removed the names, and phone numbers, but the rest of the voicemails are completely intact. (While I don't appreciate being called some of the things I was called in these voicemails, I don't want people calling and harassing them to defend my honor either. Two wrongs won't make this right.)
I'm considering posting the voicemails, to help demonstrate how reacting before knowing the facts makes ALL animal advocates look bad, and how unprofessional behavior just makes you look like a dumbass. I haven't decided yet.
And we wonder why half the world thinks of animal welfare activists as lunatics. Interestingly, both of the messages start off sane. Angry, but sane... and then it goes downhill. I have included a transcript, but you really have to listen to them to get the full effect.
TRANSCRIPTS:
1. "Yes Ms Gianotto - my name is [redacted] and I am calling to tell you I am truly, truly outraged at the falsehoods and lies you have put out against Lucy, the poor pit pull that was put down. I can't believe - it, it enrages me that someone representing an animal abuse organization would do this. You disgust me, you disgust all of us. You bring disgrace upon the entire animal rights movement. There were over 12,000 people that signed that petition. There were many many people that testified towards Lucy's defense. And it was wrong. I don't know if you took a bribe, I don't know what you did but I don't know how you live with yourself and I don't know how you sleep at night. And for shame - SHAME on you ma'am. Karma. Karma will find you. And if you would like to call me back, I am no chicken. [phone number recited] Than you very much for doing nothing to help animals. Goodbye."
2. "Ms. Gianotto, this is [redacted] from Georgia. I just wanted to tell you how very very disappointed I am to have someone representing animals such as yourself. You are a coward and you do not stand up for this poor dog that deserved another chance. If she was not a bully breed, she would not have been put down. You are a coward and I hope you have a rotten, horrible Christmas, you dirty scumbag bitch."
I HATED doing this, but I posted a bulletin in reply to the flurry of messages about it on MySpace. I don't like to air petty, bullshit drama through official org venues. I think it demeans us as an organization. But in this case, it seems smartest to go right to the source. This is what I posted to MySpace on our org account.
This bulletin is regarding the situation involving Lucy, the dog in California. If you're not familiar with Lucy or her plight, feel free to skip this bulletin. If you are aware of Lucy's case, and have heard or told tales of an activist that "turned on" Lucy, please read on.
An e-mail has been circulating the Internet, specifically MySpace, it seems, that incorrectly cites me as the author of an e-mail that's been floating around.
This is an email I sent to someone who emailed me personally about the Lucy email that somehow managed to get attributed to me. Please do the right thing and explain to the people you have sent and received this rumor to and from that I did not write this e-mail, and would appreciate an end to the hate mail and spreading of lies.
I did not write this e-mail - I forwarded it on to someone who had been keeping people informed on the Lucy situation. From there it was evidently reposted to god knows where. A recipient who actually bothered to take the time to ASK me about it then sent me what she received, and I can easily see how it would be misunderstood. Whoever did the forwarding removed any reference to the original source, which I had specifically left in the email I forwarded, to make it clear that I was not the author.
While I don't blame anyone for the misunderstanding - indeed, looking at what many of you received, I would probably have made the same assumption - it saddens me to see how many concerned citizens were so ready to lash out at me, rather than ask me if I wrote it and attempt to engage in a discussion about it. Out of all of the emails I have received about this today, only ONE person asked me about it in an intelligent and rational manner. We're all supposed to be on the same side here, folks.
I don't know who wrote it originally - I received it from someone else, with the author's information removed. I simply passed it on to a few people, and it was reposted and reposted, and has gotten way out of hand. All of this confusion and anger could have been cut off at the pass if you simply asked me about it. My organization doesn't even deal with cases like this - we deal with criminal animal cruelty, and we certainly have our hands full with that alone. I find it interesting that six years of devotion and hard work towards the welfare of animals apparently isn't as credible as a random email passed around the internet.
As a result of the e-mail, a flurry of bulletins and private messages apparently flew around MySpace. One of the particularly colorful bulletins reads, "I hope this so called activist piece of sh-t bitch has to watch someone she loves suffer for a long time, then suffer herself then finally drop like a dead fly!!!!" Several other snide remarks have insinuated that the statements were somehow financially based, which is simply ludicrous. My organization works on a shoestring budget every year - usually less than $10,000 for the entire year. We bend over backwards to provide free education and services to the public, and to agencies that need our help. I think I find the accusation that *anything* we do is financially based even more distasteful than being called a bitch and having harm wished upon me and mine.
Is this what we have become? Alarmists and hate-mongers who don't bother to try to find out who said what, but instead just react? I do understand that tensions were high in this case. A lot of people got involved, and cared very deeply for Lucy's well-being.
I contacted [redacted] (Co-Director of the [redacted]) via MySpace, as he seemed to be one of the primary sources of the misinformation. Unfortunately, he seems unwilling to post a retraction, which is why I decided to resort to posting publicly about this. I do believe that [redacted] received the information in an already-altered state with the headers removed, and therefore truly believed I was the author, however it would be appropriate to send out a bulletin letting people know the truth of the matter.
PS - to the individual that sent the South Park video clip around with nasty comments, very clever. Only you might want to check your facts before you start vilifying people you don't know.