There are many ways to destroy a person–or an animal. But the simplest and most devastating might be solitary confinement.
Consider the following testimony from prisoners interviewed by the psychiatrist Stuart Grassian in Block 10 of Walpole Penitentiary in 1982:
Chimpanzee at the San Francisco Zoo. (Photo: Jeff Marquis/Flickr)
- I went to a standstill psychologically once — lapse of memory. I didn’t talk for 15 days. I couldn’t hear clearly. You can’t see — you’re blind — block everything out — disoriented, awareness is very bad. Did someone say he’s coming out of it? I think what I’m saying is true — not sure. I think I was drooling — a complete standstill.
- I seem to see movements — real fast motions in front of me. Then seems like they’re doing things behind your back — can’t quite see them. Did someone just hit me? I dwell on it for hours.
- Melting, everything in the cell starts moving; everything gets darker, you feel you are losing your vision.
- I can’t concentrate, can’t read . . . Your mind’s narcotized . . . sometimes can’t grasp words in my mind that I know. Get stuck, have to think of another word. Memory is going. You feel you are losing something you might not get back.
Source: nytimes.com.
First Light Productions 
Reblogged this on My Blog spiritandanimal.wordpress.com.
So very sad.
BTW, last night I discovered the story of Britches via the Animal Liberation Front. I am not exaggerating when I say, I threw up and then fainted on the bathroom floor. I was probably about 3/4 way through the video on the ALF site when I had to run to the bathroom. I went back and watched the rest of the video and I’m glad I did because there was a happy ending to Britches story and that is so very very rare. I couldn’t go to bed right away and when I finally did I would wake up off and on throughout the night and immediately my mind would jump to Britches. As I rode the train into Boston this morning, I thought about Britches and then I checked email and saw the post from SHARK about the disgusting pigeon shoot in PA. My emotions ran the gamut of: anger, angst, sadness, and my stomach overall had a sick feeling, even now my stomach and mind are churning. It ceases to amaze me just how cruel, evil, and inhumane some humans can be.
Reblogged this on Ann Novek–With the Sky as the Ceiling and the Heart Outdoors.