I wandered over to the ASPCA's website the other day. I realized that "animal cruelty" just isn't cut and dried. What is cruel can depend not just on the species, but on the individual animal. In my opinion, ASPCA spends a bit too much attention on gray areas. There are plenty of clearly abused animals who need help. And they really over-simplify some things on the website.
Take spent hens, for example. What on earth is wrong with slaughtering a 2-year-old hen to eat? Plenty of non-factory farms do this, where measures are not taken to increase egg laying during the winter months or to schedule and minimize molting. Hens naturally lay more during their first two years of life. Even if you're an all-natural or organic farm charging $4/doz for eggs, you're unlikely to make a profit on hens older than 2 years. How is this cruel?
I don't care for factory farming, and that's one of the reasons we have our farm. Even the organic, all natural, "cage free" farms do things I don't care for. Is it cruel? I define cruel as "animal needs to be removed and person possibly prosecuted". In my experience farmers are doing their best in a very unprofitable business, and it just doesn't rise to that level. Until we're ready to pay a great deal more for our food (or raise and grow some of it ourselves in our manicured suburban yards) we're going to have factory farms.
I did think ASPCA presented some good information on dog fighting. See http://www.aspca.org/fight-animal-cruelty/dog-fighting/history-of-dog-fighting.html. However, they don't ask what is to me the obvious question: if the animal desperately wants to do it, is it cruel? Does the fact that we bred for that desire in the animal make it cruel? After all, we just selected for something that was already there. What makes breeding dogs for dog aggression cruel, while breeding them to chase and tree bear or to race (or horses to race for that matter) is not? I'm sure they get hurt at all these activities. We often get hurt during activities we enjoy. Is there a threshold of injury beyond which the activity is cruel? Or is the animal's choice to engage in or avoid the activity a factor? How much will does the animal have? How much of our influence is "cruel"?
And this brings me to animal sacrifice, which I did not see addressed on ASPCA's website. I don't like it, but my husband asked me a very good question one day; What is the difference between killing an animal for food or for religious purposes? Does it make a difference to the animal at the end of the day? Probably not, and I would be engaging in hypocrisy and bigotry if I declared that some people shouldn't practice their religion because I don't like it, while munching on my steak.
I didn't know what to make of the elephants in the circus videos. I just don't know enough about elephant handling. I'm sure people would watch me with my horses, and some non-horse-people might say I do cruel things. Maybe even some horse people. But I've seen what can become of a horse that isn't taught that humans are in charge. Trust me, that horse is not happy, and neither are the humans around it. And my earlier point about individuals? I have two horses who are polar opposites in personality. One is my rescued racehorse, who doesn't miss a trick and really likes to have his own way. The other is my hunter jumper TB, who is gentle, sensitive, and a true babysitter. If I behaved with him the way I behave with the racehorse, it would be cruel. But if I'm not firm with my racehorse, he won't respect me, and then I won't be able to look after him safely. That's bad for both of us.
-Pam
No comments:
Post a Comment