Theron Humphrey, a Maine artist who runs a popular website called The Wild Idea, posted this photo of his hunting dog Maddie, running behind his truck on a country road. He was instantly accused of animal abuse and recklessness and took the photo down.

“Today,” he wrote on his Facebook Page, “I was blasted by dozens of people for posting this picture…I deleted it not because I’m embarrassed by the image or feel I need to apologize for our life but rather dealing with a mob of people online attacking me is deeply troubling and hits a man hard in the soul.”

Humphrey went on to explain that “I’ve been blessed and have been giving he opportunity to literally spend 24/7 with Maddie for years now, we travel everywhere together…Maddie is a hunting dog, she lives to run. She could run 20 miles day after day and it would make her heart content. In Maine this time of year many small dirt roads are completely empty, this one is near my cabin and many miles long.”

I’m sorry that Humphrey felt he had to remove the very uplifting photo of Maddie running along the road, I understand his discomfort. Farmers, animal lovers, carriage horse drivers, dog and cat lovers have grown accustomed to hiding the truth of their lives and the joy of their animals because of the secret informers of the animal rights world and the hordes of the rude and unknowing and self-righteous hiding behind their computer screens telling other people what to do and how to live.

Poor Thoreau must be spinning in his grave, he would have gone made if had been on Facebook while at Walden Pond.

Most dogs in America spent their days at home, waiting for humans to come home from work. Millions spent years or all of their lives in crates in shelters so people can feel good about themselves. Humphrey is with his dog Maddie all the time, and he loves her enough to make sure she has the life she loves and wants and can actually live the life of a dog. He deserves all the praise and appreciation in the world for the way he loves his dog, and when I looked at the photograph, I felt nothing but admiration for him and joy for Maddie.

Theron is an especially gifted photographer, you can see the depth of his love of life and Maddie here.

My dogs often take some chances. They are rarely leased they get to run freely in the woods, the border collies I live with get to work with sheep just about every day of their lives. For me, the great pleasure of living with a dog like Fate or Red (or Maddie) is when I get help them fulfill their destiny, live the lives dogs were meant to lives.

People who love dogs ought to know that it would be much crueler for a dog like Maddie to never get to run, than to run safely behind her human being in a truck. People whose dogs spent their lives tiny backyards and  living rooms and basements ought  not to presume to tell people who live in the forests and meadows of the country what to do with their dogs. There are pets, there are animals, and there are many creatures in between.

Most American dogs are much-loved, but very few get to roam freely, make decisions, interact with the wider world. Most dogs exist solely for the emotional pleasure of their people.  People like Theron Humphrey exist in part for the pleasure of their dogs. Many hunting dogs are kept in kennels for all but a few days or weeks a year. Hunting dogs like Labs grow fat and foolish because they have nothing to do but eat and chase balls in small yards. Working horses languish and literally rot because the people who say the support the rights of animals know nothing about horses or animals and believe that work for working animals is cruel.

Every day, I see my border collie puppy Fate grow smarter and steadier and more confident as she gets to make decisions, find an outlet for her extraordinary energy, live the life she was meant to live. I am also often accused of cruelty and abuse, for much the same reasons Humphrey was. She gets to live and run freely in ways many people find disturbing.

I am very proud to say that I have never deleted a photo or story because of the ignorant and hateful messages I get, I never will. Hateful people can make loud noises on the Internet, but they are broken and frightened people to send the messages they sent, they affirm the strength of my soul, they do not batter it.

To surrender to the small and hollow people who sit behind computer screens and tell other people how to live is something I will never do, and I hope no one else will do either. Fear and cruelty and hiding is their fuel and their power, their drug. They won’t get high from me, or from my dogs.

Dogs like Maddie desperately need human beings like Theron Humphrey, he deserves  nothing but praise and support.

We have twisted our ideas about animals, lost our sense of what they are and need, all so that we can feel superior to other people and good about ourselves in a world disconnected from the natural world and from the real lives of animals. The New York Carriage horses can testify to this great moral inversion. Content, healthy, busy, well-cared for and loved, they are the luckiest horses in the world, as any behaviorist, trainer or vet will testify.

They and the people who live and work with them are perpetual targets in New York City, inevitably, the horses will almost certainly be driven from New York by people who care much more about hating people than loving animals.  And the horses will suffer, sent to slaughter or languishing on rescue farms with no lives to live, nothing to do but eat and drop manure.

Good for you, Theron, good for you, Maddie, I hope one day I see happy photographs like this all over Facebook, and I hope the peckerheads and midgets and toothless ducks who are so brave at their keyboards  are driven and shamed back into the dark corners of the Internet, from which they sprang.

Our mentor and guide, Henry David Thoreau, would know exactly where to stand were he on Facebook today. He would be clapping for Theron Humphrey and for the idea that we can live our own lives in peace and dignity, that as long as we don’t harm people and stay within the law, we are free men and women, we can make our own decisions, love our animals humanely and in the way we wish,  follow our calling and live our lives.

Dealing with an ignorant mob online does hit a person hard in the soul. Bowing down to them will hit even harder. For me, the Internet is about asserting voice and identity, not smothering it or letting the small people peck it to death. I hope to always post the stories and photos that represent the truth of my life, and I will happily take responsibility for them.

Those who sent hateful messages on Facebook would do better to read Walden than stick their noses in the business of good and innocent people, censor the messages of people sharing their lives and mess up the lives of animals.