I never knew...

I was driving to the barn the other night. A radio show was on and interviewing a man. He was discussing child trafficking - in the United States.

What? That doesn't happen here, I thought to myself. I've never been more wrong and more angry. He rattled off some statistics (which I only vaguely remember correctly so) regarding the fact that usually within something like 24hours of a little girl going missing by abduction she's is shunted into the underground sex trade. Runaways are likely propositioned and lured into the grasp of someone within 48hours. People actually position themselves outside of high schools to recruit young girls - with offers of lucrative careers.

I was appalled. He mentioned a website http://www.sctnow.org/. They fight against this heinous underworld everyday.

Here is some info and stats I got from their website:

Child Trafficking: the recruitment, smuggling, transporting, harboring, buying or selling of a child through force, threats, fraud, deception, or coercion for the purposes of exploitation, prostitution, pornography, migrant work, sweat shops, domestic servitude, forced labor, bondage, peonage or involuntary servitude.

'600,000 – 800,000 people are bought and sold across international borders each year; 50% are children, most are female. The majority of these victims are forced into the commercial sex trade. '– U.S. Department of State, 2004, Trafficking in Persons Report, Washington, D.C.

'An estimated 14,500 to 17,500 foreign nationals are trafficked into the United States each year. The number of U.S. citizens trafficked within the country is even higher, with an estimated 200,000 American children at risk for trafficking into the sex industry. – U.S Department of Justice Report to Congress from Attorney General John Ashcroft on U.S. Government Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons

'There are open sex slavery cases in all 50 States. An estimated 10,000 sex slaves exist in New York City.' – Red Light Children Campaign

'An estimated 2.5 million children, the majority of them girls, are sexually exploited in the multibillion dollar commercial sex industry.' – UNICEF

Think about those stats for a minute. Then go hug your daughters. Then go check out the website and spread the word.

I had NEVER heard of this - except maybe as something that happened overseas in other countries which made it seem so far away. I was dead wrong. I'm guessing most of you hadn't known about this either. Visit the website and tell someone else about it. Heck make a viral e-mail.

To protect our own children and other innocents who don't have anyone to protect them, we all need to know about and combat this issue. What's more is we have to encourage our legislators to crack down on people who are paying to 'use' these 'services'. It's someones baby they're 'using' and that breaks my heart.

A lot of 'horse people' these days are worrying a great deal about where our forgotten 'unwanted' horses or other pets end up. I know I do anyways. This very human issue smacked me across the face though. As long as we can do this to ourselves, especially our innocent children, what chance do our animals have at being treated with dignity?