Archives for articles tagged "Animal Rights"

Are Factory Farms Immoral?

Photo courtesy of Farm Sanctuary

On the Michael Vick discussion thread, Julie Clawson posted this comment:

I do think the dog fighting/killing thing is horrible, but I was frustrated at how the public cares so much about this crap happening to dogs but not to other animals. The horrors of cages, of abuse, and inhumane killings occur everyday on a massive scale in our factory farms. Just because cows, pigs, and chickens are not commonly kept as cherished pets does not mean that they are less intelligent or less capable of emotion than dogs. Just because we eat them and want to do so cheaply we are okay with torturing them?

Do you agree with Julie?

• Is factory farming abusive and inhumane?
• What kind of treatment would you consider to be humane?
• Do you think that animals on factory farms experience negative emotions about their situation?
• What can or should be done to change these practices?

09-04-2007 |

Michael Vick, compassion, and the efficacy of prison

Been pondering the whole Michael Vick story quite a bit. I find I have lots of questions and few answers.

Did you know that the name of Vick’s dogfighting operation, Bad Newz Kennels, is taken from a slang name for the very poor neighborhood in east Newport News where Vick grew up? Reporter David Ress decribed the area in 2007 for the Richmond Times Dispatch this way

950-plus units of public-housing projects crammed into an area of about a dozen blocks. Row after row of aging two-story apartment buildings, pressed close to the Interstate 664 bridge and looming black piles of coal. Close enough to the water for a whiff from the seafood packing plants but not for a fresh breeze. Just enough space for a walkway and clotheslines between the buildings, but not for a basketball court…not a dog in sight.

• Do you think that the public outcry and negativity toward the “brutal killing of dogs” by means of eletrocution, hanging, drowning and shooting is … reasonable?
• How else would they kill the dogs? I mean it sounds to me like the point was to kill the dogs.
• Why is dog fighting a felony?
• Why is human cage fighting not a felony?
• Why is it not okay for Michael Vick and his friends to kill their own dogs in the United States, but it is okay for us here in the United States to execute people?
• Is it right that Michael Vick and his friends will probably be getting prison sentences similar in length to the sentences handed down to those who carried out the torture and abuse of prisoners in the Abu Ghraib scandal?
• What exactly is the point of sending Michael Vick to prison? Is is for punishment? Is it for him to “be reformed”? Does sending him to prison seem like a good idea to you? Why?
• If Mr. Vick were white, how would the public response and the legal repercussions differ?

If I were George Bush, I would pardon Mr. Vick today.

08-29-2007 |

Compassion and justice for animals?

A story in the New York Times today piqued my interest: it seems poachers have shot the last two white rhino’s in Zambia, killing the female and wounding the male, and taking the female’s horn with them. It caught my eye because it triggered a question that’s been bubbling on slow simmer on the back burner in my brain for quite a while now. What’s the deal with animal rights, trying to prevent extinction of species, etc. etc.? (Oh dear, I suspect I’m rather going to get in trouble here.)

On the one hand, it makes sense to me that having a compassionate, just stance toward animals, and a wise caretaker attitude towards species, will both feed and reflect a compassionate, wise, caretaking attitude towards other people and ourselves.

On the other hand, however, … Read the rest of this entry »

06-13-2007 |