This editorial appeared in the Erie Times this morning. It covers some of the backlash the Vick case is starting to generate. In other words, the pendulum is starting to swing back the other way, as it should. I hate to come out in favor of dog-fighting, but, has I've said, it's really a ghetto culture thing and that's the culture Vick comes from. It's kind of hypocritical to come down so hard on Vick, when white, upper-middle-class people are allowed to legally go out and hunt and kill deer. That's not the mention the animal abuse and cruelty that goes on in dog racing, horse racing, and slaughterhouses that provide us with food. I'm sure there are other cases as well. No, I'm not big on harming animals. Heck, I'd rather not even exterminate ants of they are not bothering me. But I eat meat because I need something to sustain me, and you can always go back to the argument that these cows and chickens would not even come into the world if they not used for meat... but based on their lives, it's maybe better if they didn't. But nonetheless, the mass slaughter of these beings is legal, while Vick kills a handful of dogs, nothing apparently in comparison to the number that are slaughtered legally in dog racing circles, and people are ready to crucify the guy. Yeah, maybe suspend him from the NFL for a year for gambling, but could we leave it at that? As I've always said, if people are going to promote keeping pit bulls as pets, there's going to be dog fighting, because that's what these dogs were originally bred for. They're fightin' dogs, so if we're going to have them around, let them do what they do best. We don't keep thoroughbred horses around and not race them. Nobody keeps cows around without planning to slaughter them for meat, or at least use them for milk. Everything has a purpose, let it fulfill that purpose.
I've probably said enough.
Cheers.
Ralph
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3 comments:
Ralph, I read the editorial. I thought the logic was pretty pathetic. Although the author was not trying to justify or celebrate what Vick did, he was simply saying, this is the way the world works. People in glass houses.... Etc.
The obvious difference between dog fighting and any other activity mentioned is that dog fighting is INHERENTLY cruel and inhumane. Even if you object to slaugtherhouses or hunting on the principle that the end result is the death of a living being, you have to concede that there are at least mechanisms or intentions to make the process less painful. (Although, I would agree that some or most industrial meat processing facilities are barbaric even with the regulations that govern them.)
As for hunting, no hunter (at least one that is worth anything) relishes in seeing his quarry suffer after being shot. The quick kill is celebrated. Dog fighting, however, seems to be the opposite.
As for the other analogies, horse racing, dog racing, etc, the unfortunate casualties of those sports are the incidental results of competition. Again, the object of a horse race is not the death by extermination of the runners-up. And again also, there are laws in place to ensure the humane treatment of those "casualties." The problem may be in the enforcement. But that is not the point with the Vick analogy that the author is trying to make.
I suppose a talk about mankind's creation of and participation in bull-fighting would be considered relevant. But I don't think so. Bull-fighting (at least the bloody kind) is not legal in the U.S. And anyway, we all really cheer for the bull, don't we.
So that's what I have to say about Vick. You can say it was his culture. But it was illegal and rightfully so. The steak I ate last night did not make me complicit.
Yes, dog fighting is barbaric, I'll agress, but as I've said before, so is NFL football...as for myself, last night, we caught a mouse in one of those sticky traps, which are very inhumane indeed, but which I had set out to catch a pasky vole that was haunting me a month-or-so ago. I had to left the trap out for any leftovers, and last night, about 1 a.m. we hear a squeaking and little thrashing sound in our room. We can't figure out what it is, but finally my wife notices a mouse stuck in this sticky trap thing. I threw it out the window and need to retrieve it. But you could hear it crying like a baby down in the grass, and the whole thing really made me quite sick. In fact, practially tasted the little guy's fur in my water this morning... oh well.
X
Campbell (Joe, not Doug) argues that if we were to really consider our situation on Earth, we couldn't handle it.
I mean, we're in a situation where life feeds on itself. Our life comes from the death of another, and we have largely removed the unpleasant aspects of this process from our daily lives--allowing others to do our killing for us.
In other words, our situation on Earth is madness. Morality and reason and logic cannot explain it...that's a joke. I saw a flash of lightning the other day that was so bright, I couldn't even comprehend it.
And think about light...I can click a link and information can travel from Kutztown to San Jose AND BACK in less than two seconds. That's the speed of light at work for us, and although we can harness it, we really don't understand it.
We really can't comprehend very much of the universe: how bright is the sun, how large is the universe. Hell, I just carried a box of books into my office and it weighed a lot. Can you imagine the weight of the Earth...no.
I'm trying to say that everything is so much larger than we are that we can only kick the dirt and offer an opinion. I definitely see Ralph's point about Vick. And I will certainly say that the news media exploits Vick just like Vick exploits the dogs. That's what we do in America, isn't it?
Okay, gotta run.
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