Posted on 10/19/2002 12:09:22 PM PDT by ppaul
Not necessarily. Even Vegans are responsible for the death of plants.
How we treat the lowest things, the helpless things, is the true test of our humanity.
It might be one test. Another is how we treat other people who have done us no harm.
So yes, I am a meat eater. But that does not free me from any responsibility to be humane to animals, even those I would kill for food. Hunters do not seek the most painful and slow death achievable for their prey, but the swiftest and cleanest death. Because good hunters have honor. I can't believe I have to explain this. You see, when we have the power to abuse a life but choose instead to treat it with respect, THEN we are human.
I contend that people who raise fighting Cocks treat them with much greater respect than most chickens are treated with. They are prized and coddled most of their life. The people who are in the cock fighting culture that I talked to said most of the time, the chickens are not killed, and usually the fights are very quick. How many people in this culture have you talked to?
Cockfighting is not about a carnivore versus prey, this is about using animals as bloodsport simply our entertainment.
Hunting is not about entertainment? That really tender slice of feed lot fed beef is not about having just the right taste (entertainment) when range fed beef is healthier for you?
Blood should not be drawn lightly as if it has no value. And throwing two animals together in a box with blades strapped to their legs and cheering them as they slice each other in a fight for their lives has no value. And values are what we, as humans set for ourselves.
Again, have you ever attended a Cock fight? I have. One, in Panama. It was a fight to first blood, there were no metal spurs, a small drop of blood was drawn from a tiny wound, and the Cocks were taken from the fight. I suspect that the caricatures of Cock fighting that you have seen are no more valid than the propaganda about 10 children a day under the age of 5 dying in handgun accidents. Was this video or videos produced by PETA or another animal rights group? Have you seen any produced by people in the Cockfighting culture?
Don't give me crap about just being a control freak. Are you an anarchist? - Then you are at least consistent. If you are not, then yes, society does make rules for itself about what is acceptable and what is not. We only argue about which rules and how many.
I believe in the golden rule. You may do as you wish as long as you do not initialte force or fraud against others. There are a lot of rules that societies make that are unjust, unwise, and merely tradition. Only a very few years ago, homosexuality was against the law, and many people were jailed because of it. I do not think that matters such as this should be put to a majority vote. Those who support such measures should demonstrate harm to particular individuals who are not consenting. I do not consider livestock to be consenting individuals.
This initiative, in my opinion, has nothing to do with the welfare or suffering of the chickens. If it did, it would be about insuring that the fights were humane, that injured chickens were quickly put down, to prevent suffering, perhaps regulations about whether artificial spurs could be used. It is about none of these things.
The proponents of this initiative see a cheap victory in their war on rural culture. They hate people who are different than themselves, particularily people who have a different view of reality. Please convince me that I am wrong. Show me the regulatory attempts to insure that Cockfighting is humane, rather than to ban it.
Hate may be too strong a word.
But the elitists think they're better than everyone else, and they envision themselves as knowing better how the world ought to be run than the unwashed, uncivilized, masses.
Rep. Barney Frank and Cardinal Bernard Law have reportedly greased up their zippers in preparation....
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