A government official, according to the Press Herald, said this about the killing of a dog in North Yarmouth: “The incomprehensible and appalling act of one individual tarnishes the reputation of all of Maine’s 230,000 hunters … we all are outraged by this atrocity.” She added it “… was heinous and inexcusable.”

I am not making light of the shooting of a dog, but I have never heard a government official use even one of those words about domestic violence victims in Maine. When men in Maine shoot and strangle a woman, it is often called “an incident.”

Where are the 1.344 million people in Maine who should have been “outraged by the atrocity” of the three women who were murdered last October, and the thousands of victims who deal with abuse every second of every day?

Half of murders in Maine are the result of domestic abuse. There are many unreported suicides of victims, who feel it is the only solution to escape their abuse. I understand their hopelessness because, in 2005, I was seconds away from ending my life.

The dictionary definition of “perspective” is a way of regarding something, a point of view. It was important to make the public aware of this dog’s death. I would also like to awaken readers that killing and terrorizing of women is an ongoing danger in Maine and in the world. The U.N. recently reported that 51,100 women were killed by domestic violence in the world in 2023.

One woman’s death is one too many.

Mary Lou Smith
Scarborough
Finding Our Voices – findingourvoices.net