Letters to the Editor
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Remarkable
What I will always find remarkable is how often the response to blatant cruelty is to somehow affix some objectionable and minimizing label. Transferring "human" feelings onto animals, raising dogs and cats up to demi-gods, etc. And then we have the "oh my poor ears" people who are so deeply distressed by any inference of negative actions towards animals that they will have nightmares.
Hmmm.
Let's see. Where to start. Anyone who has been around an animal - cat, dog, pig, cow, chicken, horse - knows with absolute certainty that they have individual personalities, expressions, and yes (gasp!) feelings. Anyone that has witnessed the slaughter of pigs, lambs, cows, chickens knows with not one shred of doubt that those animals experience absolute terror and pain. Do not rock back and forth in your sweet little plastic world believing THAT for one more second. If you heard the screams of animals being dissected, castrated, stripped of their skins, you would never ever be able to say that there's a question as to whether they "feel" or not. Is that said so often by so many as some kind of blanket justification? It makes no sense, unless, you are woefully removed from the reality or so desensitized to others that you can move through life holding onto something so terribly untrue and misguided.
I do not "worship" my dogs. I don't say prayers to them. I do, however, say prayers for them. And for the multitudes of innocent beings that are brutalized every second of every day because they are weaker. Caring for other beings does not mean that you care for only a few - most people that care for animals care pretty deeply for people as well. I do not believe that my dogs will someday be sitting with me holding a conversation about the middle east. However, just because I don't understand what they are saying does not mean that they are not saying anything. How ridiculously arrogant is that? Think about that for one moment and you realize that you are buying a common misconception that essentially was cast out decades ago. Whales communicate to each other constantly, chickens have different calls for aerial and ground predators. Come on now, let's at least deal in facts.
My feeling is that we as a country, as part of the global community can do so much better. I am not judging any country's traditions. I am saying that when cruelty is part of a tradition, you need to change it.
And for the sensitive souls that find this type of material devastating, you better not be partaking in any form of any animal's flesh or you can officially call yourself - PART OF THE PROBLEM.