In the sorta-running section of suggested topics of discussion, I’m going to tackle animal cruelty. This is an interesting one. Mainly because some of the super vocal groups (ahem) claim that there is animal cruelty occurring in instances where it just isn’t.
Now, I love me a furry little fluff-ball as much as anyone else. I have seen true animal cruelty up close on multiple occasions, and it makes me sick. My brother crushed his black lab’s leg by stomping on it because the dog got into his pot. Which, jee, you get the dog high multiple times a day then wonder why he eats the weed? Sense, you have none. He also killed a baby bunny, who was completely house trained and tame, simply because it was annoying him. He threw it against a wall.
Yeah. That’s animal cruelty.
He’s also been too lazy to get Actual Water for the dog we have now, instead giving him soda and beer to drink. And we wonder why a beagle weighs over 70 lbs. That’s cruelty. Or refusing to take the dog outside to use the bathroom then beating him when he relieves himself on the bed. Cruelty. (A side note, this poor dog has clearly been abused his entire short life. If you move your foot anywhere near him he jumps. If you yell at him for getting in the garbage he will hide or run away. And roll in poop. Just to show you. But he has so many neuroses now, made worse by my nephew and then my brother. It all started with his first owner, though. That’s how you find a pedigree show beagle at the pound.)
Okay, this isn’t about how my brother is a psychopath, but I hope it illustrates the people who are truly abusing animals. I am absolutely sickened by the claims made by PETA that greyhounds and racehorses are abused. And, unlike those making the claims, I’ve actually spent a great deal of time around these poor abused animals.
Which leads me to say, these animals are treated better than most beloved pets. For one thing, they are incredibly expensive animals and the owners want them to be happy and perform well. Secondly, their nature is to race. If you go to thoroughbred training farm, horses naturally race one another even when they’re not training. They are intelligent and they know when they’re doing well; they certainly know when they’ve won. Everyone involved with these animals: the owners, trainers and jockeys with horses are intimately involved in the well-being of their charge. Any trainer worth taking your animal to knows them intimately and knows what their limits are. As a general rule, owners love the sport and by extension love the animals; they would never allow their horse or dog to race if it weren’t in the condition to do so. That’s why there are so many scratches in any given day on race cards. The trainer and owner consult one another to determine whether it’s safe, reasonable and responsible for the animal to run. Finally, the jockey (on horses) is one of the most careful person. There have been many claims that jockeys simply beat the horse to get them to run. In reality, the whip is used to both guide the horse and to invoke an instinctual response to go faster. Jockeys are trained extensively when and how to use their whip; many forego it for most races. And, they get to know the horses they ride (a single jockey will ride at least 1/3 of the races in a day, so they cycle through a few horses…some of the more prevalent jockeys will have specific contracts to always ride X horse and come to know them well.) There are horses who will damn near stop if so much as touched by the whip, others won’t run without it.
But the important thing to consider in horse racing is that jockeys? Weigh around 100 pounds. A horse? Weighs a lot more. If they aren’t careful, if they don’t treat the horse with respect, if they are not acutely aware of what’s happening between their legs (heh!) and all around them, not only can the the horse get hurt…or die, but the jockey can as well. So, you know, they’re pretty in tune with what’s happening on the track.
Now to go even further, horses and greyhounds are indeed an investment. A beloved one, even. They are treated better than traditional pets. Well, unless you’re a bajillionaire with a staff to care for your animals. Although there are a few unfortunate exceptions, most race animals have fabulous and fun careers then are taken to pasture where they either are used for breeding or frolic amongst the daisies.
Now, let’s move on to other touchy animal subjects. Specifically, animal fights. See, with this I truly am torn. No, I don’t think that it’s super awesome to train your dog or cock (heh!) to be aggressive, angry and out for blood. And then throw them into a pen with one another to see who wins a fight. That’s pretty much not cool. But, you have to think about it a little. These are animals that naturally fight in the wild. Humans have domesticated (or segregated) them and bred out aggression. Though I haven’t slipped into movie quotes in a while, I can’t help but go a little Whedony here while taking a cue from Serenity; you can’t make people better. People are animals. Ergo, you can’t make animals better by weeding out aggression. It will backfire in some way. Maybe there won’t be Reaver dogs, but we’ve seen what selective breeding has done to animals (can you say Dalmatians and their many problems thanks to selective breeding? It’s like marrying cousins in West Virginia…doesn’t end well.)
But, the point is that there are animals that are naturally aggressive. Should we profit from this? I don’t know. I don’t feel entirely comfortable saying yes, but I would be lying if I said that there’s a way to make these fights disappear entirely. Hell, I live in a house with two cats and a dog. They fight. Especially the one cat. She goes outside and picks fights. We had an old cat that did the same. Our pets are not as domesticated as we want to believe. Plus, in the wild, most animals fight naturally. Maybe not slugs, but that’s likely just because they’re slow and couldn’t arrange a sneak attack. Then again, I don’t like slugs at all so I’ve never quite watched one. Usually I just shriek and cry. And take really high steps. Why yes, sometimes I do look like I’m from a Monty Python sketch. In any case, it just makes me wonder what right we, as humans, have to change the intuitive behavior of any organic system. I guess all this is to say that I don’t have a definitive answer for something like this. I’m honestly torn. One cannot suppress nature without disastrous consequences…but should we force laden traits out in the open? I don’t know that one.
Another area to ponder is culturally significant rituals involving animals. Say, bull fighting and/or the running of the bulls. The animals get hurt and killed. So do the people. But I have to admit that I simply cannot imagine a Spain without the bulls. It is so attached to the culture that it can be hard to separate the two. Then again, Japan has a bit of a history with killing animals ruthlessly. Shark fin soup, anyone? (Yes, they cut off the dorsal fin of the shark then throw it back into the water where it will inevitably die without its fin.) But then I have to think back to the animal world. Take dolphins as an example. Motherfuckers are mean! Gads of young women have these beautiful, friendly depictions of flipper permanently inked into their skin. But how many people know that dolphins are not only famous for being one of the few animals to have sex for fun, but also to rape for fun and…oh yeah…murder for fun. It’s not just a single group that learned the behavior, either. There’s currently a group of dolphins off the coast of Scotland and off the east coast of the US who simultaneously developed the desire to use their sticky-outy nose to beat other dolphins, especially babies, and porpoises to death.
Some might say that humans are more advanced and more sophisticated than their animal cousins. Some might also say that animals are in no way related to humans, but that just makes me guffaw. I personally believe we have way too much left to learn. Maybe one day we’ll realize that it’s just best to submit to our new insect overlords. Because, dude, ants are SMART. And totally my spirit animal. (Not really, it’s an old joke that means very little now. Still. Spirit Animal!) But how presumptuous to assume that we, as humans, are the most intelligent life form? I don’t buy it. We still have all this silly religious baggage we carry with us, causing insane wars over whose belief is right and whose dick is larger.
On a more personal note, I have no qualms with giving the dog a smack on the ass when he’s been horrible. I also tell him I don’t love him anymore and he’s not my friend. It totally offends him. The little panther? Yeah, when she’s bad, her punishment is being held. Corporal cuddling. As a general rule she’s pretty good, though, so I guess I just torture her. Ziggy gets squirted – a lot. He also gets to participate in corporal cuddling, but only when I’m trying to write or read or am otherwise occupied but he demands to be the center of attention. So I make him the center of attention until he gets all huffy and squirms to get loose. Then I continue a little longer before letting go.
Finally, this topic really struck me today when I learned a few new things about how vaccines are made. Did you know that the flu vaccines are incubated in a fertilized chicken egg? I’m not sure about other vaccines and am too lazy to do all the research. So, basically what happens is a fertilized egg aged ~9 days is injected with a live influenza (either the seasonal flu or current H1N1 pandemic flu) to incubate for up to 3 days. Then the virus is removed. And egg discarded, being all spoiled and such. Now, in the words of my Christian father, animals were placed here to be used by humans. For food, for labor, for companionship. Not to mistreat. And, well, Christian ideals are not always crazy. But it makes me wonder about PETA. And about the animal activists. Would they choose health over their belief that no animal should be harmed? I mean, we’re talking chicken abortion here.
