Sunday, January 29, 2006
Enjoy Your Dinner Assholes
One of the reasons I enjoy having less readers is because it means I have to deal with less sanctimonious shit heels who like to tell me how wrong I am for the way I think. I don’t recall ever saying I had it all right; this is merely a place I stop to make my opinions heard. If you agree with it, great, if you don’t, just as great. As long as you aren’t the above mentioned sanctimonious shit heel.
Now, having said all that, (yes, it’s a segue), I thought I’d pour out another opinion I have at the risk of some schmuck writing me to tell me what a hypocrite I am. I don’t think in this particular case I am, but I am not closing the door to that possibility.
The topic today is: “Where the fuck I draw the line when it comes to consuming meat.”
And this
is where I draw that damn line. (The caption that goes with this picture is thus: "A dog destined for the dinner table is being thrown into a cage at the Xin Yuan animal market in Guangzhhou, China....")
So let me start off with explaining the two biggest reasons I draw the line here.
Number one: I hate animal cruelty. I hate people who do it, participate in it, make a living off of it, joke about it.....all of those people can lick my non existent schlong until they choke to death.
Allow me to further explain my stance. I do eat chicken but rarely. The reason I do it rarely is because the chickens are not always treated humanely before their slaughter. I’m not one to go so far as to say that we shouldn’t eat meat....for Christ’s sake let’s get that out there for the reading impaired, but I do not like the way they are treated. I do not like the fact that they are stuffed together in small pens; so small they can’t even stretch their wings. I do not like the fact that their beaks are sheared off before being stuffed in to that small pen. Oh yes, I’m not an idiot, I know why they do it...because if you stuff a bunch of birds in a small pen with their beaks still intact, what do you think is going to happen.
THE POINT is, they shouldn’t BE in those fucking pens in the first place. Have you ever driven behind a truck carrying chickens to the slaughter house? When I lived in Seattle, I would periodically find myself behind these trucks and the sight always sickened me. It literally made my stomach turn. Pen after pen after pen of chickens, shoved in them with no room to move at all, flying down the freeway at 60 mph.
Let me ask you something...have you ever been to Seattle? It can get damn cold up there. These pens are not protected from the outdoor elements. Add to that a 60mph wind and you have yourself some very unpleasant circumstances. And there isn’t a DAMN thing those chickens can do about it because they can’t fucking move.
That is repulsive beyond belief. “But you said you ate chickens, so obviously you support it.” Yes, I do eat chicken, again, rarely and when I do, I buy the “free range” chicken. It’s more expensive and maybe I’m a fool and they don’t actually have “free range” chickens but until that is proven not to be the case, that is what I buy. I will not support some asshole who treats animals in that manner.
Do we understand the difference now between PETA screaming for everyone to stop eating meat and calling for animal rights and those of us out there who understand why people eat meat, eat meat ourselves but would like them to be treated in a humane fashion before going to slaughter?
Why is it that murderers, child abusers, rapists get treated better than an innocent animal who has done nothing more than dare poke his beak through the shell of his egg and welcome life? Oh everyone likes to scream about humane treatment for prisoners...not too long ago people were up in arms because some insurgents, who were KILLING people, were paraded and dragged around their cells on a leash. THAT is not acceptable but it’s PERFECTLY FINE to sheer off the beaks of chicks before shoving them into a cage with 35 other chicks.
Now why would that be? To some the answer is because they believe animals are dumb. Others are in it for the money. Still others think they are dumb and are about the money. What they are not about is humane treatment of an innocent life.
“Serenity, you hypocrite...you eat that innocent life.”
Yes I do. I view death differently than many, perhaps because once you are dead, you are dead. You feel nothing. You know nothing. It’s over. You’re done. But while you are alive? You feel everything. So many chowderheads love to claim that animals feel nothing, have no feelings. Really! Someone out there actually says that animals feel no fear? They can actually say that with a straight face? Someone out there actually says that animals can’t feel content? I didn’t say they were happy or loving, I said they were content.
Number two: I have never stated I was an animal expert but I believe, just as with humans, there are smarter animals and there are animals who aren’t so smart. A dog is a pretty damned intelligent animal and very useful. Dogs can rescue people, dogs can help the disabled, dogs can protect people. Dogs can be therapuetic to people.
That is why I draw the line at eating dogs. It isn’t about the furry little heads, it’s about what they are. And what is even more disturbing in that photo above is HOW that dog is being treated at the moment that photo was snapped. They are shoving that dog into a wire cage..do you see where he has smacked his head on the side of the cage?
Do you have a dog? If you saw someone pick up your dog and shove him into a cage in that manner would you be upset? I don’t agree with people eating dogs. However, I understand that we all have cultural differences and what I eat is disgusting to some other cultures..ie: COW is something some in India wouldn’t dream of eating. But to treat an intelligent animal such as a dog in the way he is being treated in that photo....let alone all the dogs in the background, sitting in their small cages, stacked on top of each other, is foul, inhumane and very, VERY fucking wrong.
I realize the arguments, “animals are beneath us”, “we are smarter than animals”, “we have the opposable thumbs”, “we are the superior beings”, blah blah blah. The fact is, it is BECAUSE we are the “superior beings” (for lack of a better label), that we have obligations and duties. Whenever someone is higher up than another being, they have certain responsibilities. Your manager has more responsibility than you do. A parent has more obligations than their children.
So maybe we are smarter than the other animals. Maybe the other animals can’t reason. Maybe they can’t feel empathy. But we can. And that is where people get it wrong. Maybe the animals can’t feel empathy but we, humans can and it is our responsibility, as “superior beings” to show that empathy towards the animals that are “beneath us”. You do not get to have “all the power” and no responsibility. It does not work that way.
For every time man shows cruelty or lack of empathy to animals in this world, the more I realize that animals, not man, are superior. (That’s my own quote.)
And while we’re at it...STOP BUYING YOUR DOGS AND CATS FROM BREEDERS! If you want to adopt a dog or cat, go to the pound or Humane Society or Animal Control and find your new friend. There are MILLIONS of unwanted dogs and cats killed every year. If you truly wish for a companion animal, you won’t care if it’s not pure bred. If you are only going for the animal you can have to show off to your friends, you do NOT need to be getting an animal.
There is no closing to this....this photo came upon me as I sat down to eat dinner tonight. There isn’t a lot in this world that can make me lose my appetite. Cruelty to animals, people even joking about it, makes my stomach lurch. I don’t give a good gottdamn who they are or what they “have done for me” or what they might say. I dislike, severely, people like this and THAT is what makes me want to vomit. I don’t care if someone eats meat, I just care when someone is an asshole about it. The guy in that photo, the owner of that place? Assholes. I don’t care to hear about the money involved and all that bullshit, you are putting a dollar figure on a life. Just get the fuck over the damn dollar and see an asshole for what he is.
