They may look like tough hellraisers, but these tattooed bikers are just big softies. Here's the story of Rescue Ink and their quest to save abused animals:
THEY met on the local hot rod scene. They saw one another at tattoo conventions around the area, comparing bikes. They looked like heavies, a band of Hells Angels, with nicknames equally tough: Mike Tattoo, Big Ant, Johnny O, Batso, Sal, Angel, Des.
They meant no harm. Clad in leather, inked to the hilt in skulls and dragons, with images of bloodied barbed wire looped about their necks, they shared something else — a peculiar tenderness for animals, and the intensity needed to act on the animals’ behalf when people abuse them.
“I’m a vegetarian,” said Mike Tattoo (real name Mike Ostrosky), a former bodybuilding champion with a shaved head, great arms covered in art and a probing clarity in his blue eyes. “And Big Ant has in his backyard three guinea pigs, a couple of rabbits, birds, cats — and fish everywhere. But just because a person has tattoos, they wouldn’t come running with us.”
Link - Thanks Sarah Wolcheski!
(Photo: Librado Romero / The New York Times)
Interestingly, a goodly portion of the most uncaring, cheap and horrible pet owners I see are older, "clean-cut" people who appear to be fairly well off.
and michele-- keep this in mind: those older, clean-cut people who "appear" to be fairly well off are the same kind of people "appearing" to run an honest democratic government............ their terrible pet ownership is definitely symbolic of their true nature and behavior. if they can't treat animals right, how can we even expect them to treat their fellow americans right? 90% of lobbyists and CEOs are sociopaths anyways... and our markets are run by these people. excellent.
the bikers are a bunch of nobel do-gooders! i'm glad they're doing it. i'm sure they get a sort-of edge over other animal rescues too, because violators could only feel intimidated when confronted by a group of bikers.
give and praise people who really do help animals , not this group of Fakes.