Since we're in the donating mood

[Fish_Whisperer]

Bingo, Jonnythan. EXACTLY my thoughts.

Our local humane society is pretty bizarre, too. I took my family over to look at the cats, and we picked one that we liked. They told us that they would have a meeting later in the week, and they would vote as to whether or not we could provide a home for the cat we wanted. What the hell? We've ALWAYS had cats, and we live in a nice house, and we take VERY good care of our animals. I told them that they could stuff their cat up their backsides and we left. Instead, we rescued a kitten that had been born in a barn, on the horse ranch of a friend, and he's turned into quite a handsome little fella.

 

[adurso]

I have been reading this with great interest, I live a short distance away from PETA HQ, along the river. I was a police officer in Norfolk and have observed PETA since they located here; the organization seems to believe that animals are more important than people.

Are animals more important than people? Why do these folks not put their energies into feeding starving, albeit, non-cute people.

When the day comes that there are no starving humans, no attempts at genocide, no flyblown disease ridden children, no victims....THEN I will worry about animal "rights"

 

[deeper thoughts]

I have been reading this with great interest, I live a short distance away from PETA HQ, along the river. I was a police officer in Norfolk and have observed PETA since they located here; the organization seems to believe that animals are more important than people.

Are animals more important than people? Why do these folks not put their energies into feeding starving, albeit, non-cute people.

When the day comes that there are no starving humans, no attempts at genocide, no flyblown disease ridden children, no victims....THEN I will worry about animal "rights"

Lets hope people are able to worry about all

 

[ONESPEED]

Lets hope people are able to worry about all

Huh?:huh:

 

[Diver0001]

I watched the PETA video. I've seen it a few times.

By all accounts, this video is video of an illegal fur farm in a third world country of unknown origin, possibly China. The practices shown in this video are very, very illegal in virtually every country on earth.


s.

Thinking that serious abuses of animals must be a third world problem is utterly delusional. I think we should view it as an icon of the moral and ethical bankruptcy of "modern civilization". At some level we are simply a vicious and inhumane race. Genocides, wars, freeway shootings, shaking babies until they die and skinning raccoons alive are all similar acts at some moral level. What we're seeing here is a symptom of the human disease. We can try to debunk the video as something that doesn't happen in "my" back yard, but in my mind that's just refusing to face it. If we look a little deeper, the things happing in our back yards are just as bad.

R..

 

[H2Andy]

At some level we are simply a vicious and inhumane race. ..

yes

at the same time, we are an altruistic and compassionate race ...

it's all about encouraging the good while trying to keep the bad to a minimum ...

but it's all there in us, and it can come out at any time. human beings are capable of great things and of horrible things as well.

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

Thinking that serious abuses of animals must be a third world problem is utterly delusional. I think we should view it as an icon of the moral and ethical bankruptcy of "modern civilization". At some level we are simply a vicious and inhumane race. Genocides, wars, freeway shootings, shaking babies until they die and skinning raccoons alive are all similar acts at some moral level. What we're seeing here is a symptom of the human disease. We can try to debunk the video as something that doesn't happen in "my" back yard, but in my mind that's just refusing to face it. If we look a little deeper, the things happing in our back yards are just as bad.

R..

So? What are you, personally, doing about it? In what ways are you involved, other than donating your money to an extremist organization like PETA? Money is cheap... What are you directly doing? Do you work with the Humane Society? Hospice? Big Brothers? Volunteer at homeless shelters? What do you do to personally contribute your time and energy towards making this planet a better place to be?

 

[dherbman]

At some level we are simply a vicious and inhumane race.

R..

The most vicious and inhumane act our race is capable of is all out warfare. So, which is worse, warfare or inhumane treatment of animals? Each is unfortunate for different reasons, but both are necesary for our race to have progressed to the point it has.

So, which is the more vicious and inhumane?

 

[jonnythan]

Thinking that serious abuses of animals must be a third world problem is utterly delusional.

That's precisely my point.

The problem here is the same problem I have with Michael Moore.

There are *tons* of problems with {animal cruelty; Bush administration} that can be exposed and shock people without having to resort to gross distortions of the truth.

PETA has, on some level, been successful in exposing some of the horrible things that get done to animals in this country for no good reason.

However, they have been infinitely more successful in turning people off of their cause through deceit and ethics that are, frankly, absolutely disgusting to me as a human being.

As I said, I support animal rights to some degree, and I certainly oppose forced animal suffering [except in cases where there is a direct benefit to humanity], but I absolutely will never support PETA.

 

[adurso]

Thinking that serious abuses of animals must be a third world problem is utterly delusional. I think we should view it as an icon of the moral and ethical bankruptcy of "modern civilization". At some level we are simply a vicious and inhumane race. Genocides, wars, freeway shootings, shaking babies until they die and skinning raccoons alive are all similar acts at some moral level. What we're seeing here is a symptom of the human disease. We can try to debunk the video as something that doesn't happen in "my" back yard, but in my mind that's just refusing to face it. If we look a little deeper, the things happing in our back yards are just as bad.

R..

Actually "modern civilization" is pretty good as compared to historical civilization. The things you mention would not have merited a blink as little as one hundred years ago. What is the "human disease"?

This is the safest time in human history to be alive. Until recently, historically, that is, the leading cause of death for all males was murder; in the early 1900s in New York City children banded together in gangs that were so vicious the adult gangs left them alone, child mortality is down, the opportunity for education is up.

The media brings all manner of horrors to your front door, so it appears that these things go on everywhere, all the time; in reality they do not. Your backyard is probably fairly clean...