The Batlord

Yeah, but the emotional fulfillment provided by food animals has nothing to do with them as living beings, but as... you know... food. So, by my logic there isn't reason to give them even the most basic protection that doesn't involve food safety.

And I don't know what specific laws are in regards to lizards, fish, spiders, etc, but I don't imagine they are as protected as animals, like cats and dogs, that are capable of more profound emotional connections with pet owners, and that are closer to what can be called sentience. Or at least those laws aren't exercised as rigorously.


As much as I would like to see this guy hurt, no, not by current standards I don't think a year in jail entirely makes sense (not that I'm going to lose any sleep over it). But someone like Michael Vick, yeah, put him away. If he done the same with people he would have been executed, so a year or two in prison certainly wouldn't have been out of proportion, and the kind of premeditated sadism he practiced is certainly miles away from a random act of cruelty.

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Chula Vista

Here kitty, kitty.

WHAM!

What the f*ck does this have to do with food?

Guy's a dick and deserves a beat down.

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“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

John Wilkes Booth

i don't disagree we should discourage anti-social and psychotic behavior in general. to me vick should have just been shunned by society and stripped of his fortune and fame. but of course in this society you can't really do that. truth be told if i was in charge of **** things in general would be a little more USSR-ish.

DwnWthVwls

There are none that I know of. I was asking if you think those kinds of pets should be awarded the same protection/laws as the pets you described who provide emotional fulfillment (cats, dogs, etc)?

I mean how many different levels of protection are there going to be? These 4 groups come to mind immediately:

-food animals
-pets
-pets who provide no emotional or use to society
-wild animals

If someone has a pet spider is it's life more valuable than a wild one? Separating all these things makes for an overly complicated system that will likely have double-standards and hypocritical logic to justify itself. I believe it's possible to have a system that treats all animals civilly without sacrificing the luxury of a protein rich diet.

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I don't got a god complex, you got a simple god...

Chula Vista

Don't believe there's such a thing. There's a member here who gets off on large spiders. Last week I listened to my 84 year old mom bawl on the phone after her parakeet of 11 years dropped dead.

__________________

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

John Wilkes Booth

if you care when your goldfish dies i honestly think life just isn't for you

Chula Vista

You just don't get it. A pet becomes part of your life routine even if it doesn't give back in a big way. My daughter had a fish when she was really young. She so looked forward to feeding it every morning and evening. She loved seeing it eagerly going at the food. Or being playful when she tapped the fishbowl.

She cried when it died and I got really choked up burying it with her.

What's not to get here?

__________________

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well,
on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away
and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

Pet_Sounds

I've been keeping fish for years and am still upset when I lose one. I always feel a bit guilty.

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Everybody's dying just to get the disease

John Wilkes Booth

your daughter gets a pass assuming she was under 10

Xurtio

But then what if we considered a new claas of victims? Would it be ok to eat a human because you were hungry or is it more morally acceptable to kick a human because you're angry? Assuming the human was killed in a sanctioned industrial fashion, of course.

To me, it's more taboo to eat a human, whereas with animals it's more taboo to kick them. We've grown up eating animals so we're comfortable with it... which kind of makes morality more about personal comfort than an intellectual/spiritual journey.

Whereas ethical vegans consider the suffering and death of animals as morally negative regardless of personal comfort. Of course, there are probably hedonist vegans, too, that are grossed out or disgusted or horrified by death and meat and really only avoid it out of personal comfort.

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