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Animal Logic
Oct. 6th, 2010 09:15 amHad a long conversation with Armandae about animal welfare and societal rules about animal treatment, and a lot of new stuff occurred to me. I used to think that cruelty-to-animals shouldn’t be a crime that gets you a prison sentence – prison should be for people who hurt people, not for people who hurt non-persons. Sure, the government should remove the animals and fine the person a bunch of money, but jailtime seems a bit much. But Armandae pointed out that dog-fighting football player dude was responsible for an extreme level of cruelty on a whole bunch of animals, and I guess when it gets to that level, I don’t mind if the dude goes to jail. Which is what happened – Michael Vick got 22 months in jail and bankrupted by the whole deal, so the system is designed to chew you up if you’re really, really bad to animals, and I guess I’m ok with that. I just got so bored with all the news coverage of it, I just wanted the whole thing to go away so they could talk about something interesting.
And it also occurred to me why I’m leery about people trying to pass laws that protect their certain animals but not others, like making it illegal to eat horses or dogs, but fine to eat cows or chickens. To value one animal more than another, that’s certainly any person’s right. The passion that some people have for their dogs, for example - it seems to inform their worldview and enrich their lives to a huge extent, and that’s awesome. It’s exactly like the satisfaction and fulfillment a lot of people get from their religion, it’s a huge part of you and your life, and you can’t imagine it not being there. The problem with that, of course, is when people try to change the legal system based on their views of their god, or their love of a particular animal. That’s when it gets super sketchy. It bugs me that many people are fine with industrial chicken production, but if they saw fifty thousand cats raised in the same conditions, they would be totally outraged. There’s no scientific reason to regard cats any differently that chickens, there are only personal emotional reasons. A personal emotional attachment to an animal species is great, but, just like any religion, it’s not necessarily relevant to anyone else, and certainly not a way to regulate a civil society.
So I think when most people say they are animal lovers, what they mean is they love some animals more than others. I’m different: I love all animals equally. They’re all delicious. I’ve been subscribing to a meat farm CSA for a couple years now, and I enjoy a standard of living that allows me to frequent restaurants that cook local happy meats, and as a result of that I’m probably responsible for far less animal cruelty than the average American. However at the same time I’m more vocal than the average American about how little I care about animal welfare. Which is kinda funny.
And it also occurred to me why I’m leery about people trying to pass laws that protect their certain animals but not others, like making it illegal to eat horses or dogs, but fine to eat cows or chickens. To value one animal more than another, that’s certainly any person’s right. The passion that some people have for their dogs, for example - it seems to inform their worldview and enrich their lives to a huge extent, and that’s awesome. It’s exactly like the satisfaction and fulfillment a lot of people get from their religion, it’s a huge part of you and your life, and you can’t imagine it not being there. The problem with that, of course, is when people try to change the legal system based on their views of their god, or their love of a particular animal. That’s when it gets super sketchy. It bugs me that many people are fine with industrial chicken production, but if they saw fifty thousand cats raised in the same conditions, they would be totally outraged. There’s no scientific reason to regard cats any differently that chickens, there are only personal emotional reasons. A personal emotional attachment to an animal species is great, but, just like any religion, it’s not necessarily relevant to anyone else, and certainly not a way to regulate a civil society.
So I think when most people say they are animal lovers, what they mean is they love some animals more than others. I’m different: I love all animals equally. They’re all delicious. I’ve been subscribing to a meat farm CSA for a couple years now, and I enjoy a standard of living that allows me to frequent restaurants that cook local happy meats, and as a result of that I’m probably responsible for far less animal cruelty than the average American. However at the same time I’m more vocal than the average American about how little I care about animal welfare. Which is kinda funny.
