Global Action Day for Orelha
New protests in the name of the tortured and killed street dog
I was supposed to be standing in front of the Brazilian Embassy in Lisbon right now. Like in other cities, a rally was planned there, to demand punishment for Orelha’s tormentors. Then Lisbon was canceled—though there’s plenty of other news to report.
“You think you’re invincible. But you’re wrong: justice will prevail!” This is the message of a video clip promoting the Global Day of Action for Orelha on May 2. Boston – Dallas – Madrid – London – Prague. Protest rallies are taking place in front of Brazilian embassies all over these cities. In Brazil, where the crime took place, people had already begun gathering in the days leading up to the event—in Brasília, São Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro. Animal rights activists in Argentina have also pledged their support.
Almost exactly four months have passed since the night of January 4, when Orelha fell into the hands of the teenage animal abusers. Four months in which more and more people in more and more countries, filled with revulsion for the perpetrators and compassion for the tortured dog, have come together to demand “Justice for Orelha.”
A bombshell last week: A video surfaced on social media that the youths suspected of the crime had recorded themselves and posted online—at least for a short while. But that was enough time for the video to spread across the entire internet—and to trigger outrage, disgust, and anger.
The video shows a group of teenagers drinking and partying in a room. “Now the Orelha filter,” one of them demands, and someone puts on a dog mask. “Hit me in the face!” a voice taunts. Sounds like a hammer. Then cries of “Ouch, ouch.” Roaring laughter. The copycats apparently feel so safe that they even take off the mask. Their faces are clearly recognizable. That could now spell trouble for two of them.
The private pre-university institute Gaia Curso e Colégio in Florianópolis, which is attended by at least two of the teenagers recognizable in the video, has distanced itself from any form of violence and is reported to have announced that it has expelled the two teenagers from the school. According to the Facebook group “Justice for Orelha (International),” a whistleblower has confirmed this. (The institute has not yet responded to my written request for confirmation, note.)
One of the two men in the video is reportedly Andre, the nephew of former professional tennis player Gustavo “Guga” Kuerten. The three-time French Open champion’s German grandmother funded his athletic training. Kuerten lives in his hometown of Florianópolis, where his nephew also lives with his family—30 kilometers from the beach district where Orelha was tortured. Kuerten has so far remained silent about his nephew’s involvement in the video. Online, the first voices are calling for a boycott of companies that work with Kuerten. Others are urging the community to express their disappointment over his silence to the International Tennis Hall of Fame. The Brazilian was inducted into the tennis hall of fame in Newport, Rhode Island, in 2012.
Elizabeth Griffiths writes on Facebook: “I wonder if the parents realize how miserably they have failed as parents. Not only have they raised monsters who find animal cruelty amusing, but they also condone it by trying to buy their children out of trouble. If they can’t raise them properly, then they should at least—in the interest of the rest of us who have to breathe the same air as these disgusting offspring—teach them that their actions have consequences.”
There is a consensus among activists that the perpetrators should still be made to pay for their crime. Lawyers and politicians are calling for an investigation and criminal prosecution of the perpetrators.
According to a post circulating online that is allegedly from one of the perpetrators, Pedro Kowalski, the whole thing was just “a joke among friends.” Orelha was already ten years old—“time for him to die.” Pedro has no regrets. “Seeing him suffer like that was hilarious, haha.” Activists are now calling it a crime—which wasn’t one at all.
“He was just a smelly, tick-covered dog, haha. I speak for the whole group.”
This text was first published on my German website and translated by me.
More from me about Orelha and the efforts to punish animal abusers: