Thank you, Joe Maurici (From Janet)

He seems harmless enough.  You know the ones – we see them, hear them, and read about them every day.  The ones who seemingly go about their business, carving a life for themselves, innocuously under the radar, not much to think about.

But then – blam – a sudden comment or action, and you remember them, if just for that moment to say “WTF?!”.  Dude, WHAT was your REAL motivation for replying in that manner or doing that?

Every week, I am upsetting someone with a post, a tweet, a comment. It’s become more of the standard (sadly) to expect that when you commit to something worthy, stand up for what you believe in, and then JUST DO SOMETHING to make a difference, somewhere, someone isn’t going to like it.

Let’s take Joseph Maurici as a recent example. Along with many other Animal Petitions that we routinely share out, I posted one regarding the company Kikkoman, who has recently been found to be conducting rodent Animal Testing for their soy sauce products.  Most would agree that animal testing is horrific – these animals suffer unbearable insults and injuries, most are captured or bred in-house JUST for this purpose, and almost all of them die as a result of this testing, never ever leaving the confines of that tiny cage.  And to test on animals to make soy sauce taste better…such a tragedy.

But Joe Maurici doesn’t think so.  For some reason, out of all the posts that we share, this one hit something for Joe that caused him to respond as anyone uneducated about Animal Testing would:

Now, Joe seems harmless enough: routine job, standard profile picture (grinning, head tilt to the right, same pose for his work picture), doesn’t brag a lot on social media.  Wouldn’t hurt a fly, right? Hm.

And yet, smack in the middle of his semi-interesting political one-liner tweets, is his response to us.

You will notice that not one of Joe’s connections favorited or retweeted his reply.  Makes sense, since Animal Testing is abhorrent, and so many are working hard to heighten awareness and put an end to it.  Most people understand the impact Animal Testing has on its subjects, and know how cruel and unnecessary it is.

Joe’s one little tweet says A LOT.  In fact, it says more than any of his previous or post five, no make it ten, tweets put together.

If someone, like me, who does not know Joe, saw his tweet, it would be easy to sum him up as a simple little guy with no regard for all life.  So many “Joes” out there think THEIR life is what matters, and that’s it.

It’s more unfortunate if Joe has the power and ability to impact others, and he passes his opinion of smaller mammals onto others, others might listen.  Some might think Joe is the greatest thing since sliced bread, and that his opinion is THE opinion to follow.  Okay, probably not, but stranger things have happened.

Joe’s single comment puts his thinking back to a time when it was still acceptable to wear fur and beat dogs. We can only guess at what else quiet little Joe’s thoughts are that might be doing more harm than good.

Poor misguided Joe.

So what do you do when you come up against a Joe? Well, nothing. He becomes a moment that you remember WHY you are championing so hard to help those that cannot help themselves. There are MANY Joes out there, just waiting to jump on you with a comment or action against the very right thing you are doing.

So thanks Joe. Comments like yours help my skin remain thick every day. Because when it comes to Animal Advocacy, or any cause so painful that you have to JUST DO SOMETHING about it, you need a very thick skin.

P.S. – Hey Joe, we live in the same town. I invite you to talk with me in person. Then, you can say it to my face.  You can reach me through our Contact Page at just-do-something.org.  Come on.