there's a lot of innocent people being crucified
2005-06-22 18:07:18 UTC
I read a newspaper story the other day about a man charged with animal
cruelty for trying to feed a kitten to an alligator (the kitten survived).
Now I just love cats, but I can't see what would be illegal about this,
or what is particularly "cruel" about it. I have a pet gopher snake and
every week or two he gets a meal of 6 or so live adult mice. Why is it
okay to feed live mice but not live cats to reptiles?
Similarly, my state legislature was recently busy trying to draft laws
that would ban slaughtering horses for human consumption. I like
horses just fine, but don't see what the difference is between a horse
and a cow that horses should be protected from being eaten. Keep in
mind that there was never any attempt to ban slaughtering horses for
ANIMAL consumption (e.g. dog food), it was the fact that PEOPLE were
eating them that made the act of slaughtering them "cruel." Just the
other day the newspaper was reporting how a bunch of animal rights
nazis were opposing a plan to send old horses to slaughterhouses,
the activists argued that the horses should be "humanely" euthanized
and given proper burials (!) - apparently that isn't cruel but
eating the flesh of that same dead horse is cruel. Oh, and the U.S.
Congress just proposed a bill that would prohibit federal
inspection of horse meat, essentially making the meat unsellable
in the U.S. market even if the actual slaughter of horses remains
legal.
My question is whether an animal's protected status is based on any
criteria other than its cuteness. Kittens are cuter than mice,
therefore they can't be food for hungry reptiles, while mice aren't
quite so cute so therefore you can feed as many of them as you want
to reptiles.
cruelty for trying to feed a kitten to an alligator (the kitten survived).
Now I just love cats, but I can't see what would be illegal about this,
or what is particularly "cruel" about it. I have a pet gopher snake and
every week or two he gets a meal of 6 or so live adult mice. Why is it
okay to feed live mice but not live cats to reptiles?
Similarly, my state legislature was recently busy trying to draft laws
that would ban slaughtering horses for human consumption. I like
horses just fine, but don't see what the difference is between a horse
and a cow that horses should be protected from being eaten. Keep in
mind that there was never any attempt to ban slaughtering horses for
ANIMAL consumption (e.g. dog food), it was the fact that PEOPLE were
eating them that made the act of slaughtering them "cruel." Just the
other day the newspaper was reporting how a bunch of animal rights
nazis were opposing a plan to send old horses to slaughterhouses,
the activists argued that the horses should be "humanely" euthanized
and given proper burials (!) - apparently that isn't cruel but
eating the flesh of that same dead horse is cruel. Oh, and the U.S.
Congress just proposed a bill that would prohibit federal
inspection of horse meat, essentially making the meat unsellable
in the U.S. market even if the actual slaughter of horses remains
legal.
My question is whether an animal's protected status is based on any
criteria other than its cuteness. Kittens are cuter than mice,
therefore they can't be food for hungry reptiles, while mice aren't
quite so cute so therefore you can feed as many of them as you want
to reptiles.