Animal Rights activists call for death of baby polar bear

[Steel Tiger]

This is the second post this evening, Steel Tiger, in which you demonstrated excellent knowledge of the political activities of a country as far away from you as possible, while remaining on the same planet.

I commend you for your planetary awareness.

:asian:

I thank you for your generous acclaimation.

 

[Jonathan Randall]

I have the same recollection, Drac...

Funny what some of these folks are contruing as `rights', eh? I think this is a fringe position—Defenders of Wildlife and similar orgs would never take this stance as long as the animal were healthy and there were hope of returning it to the wild along those lines.

So true! There are actually folks who believe that having pets is cruelty to animals. I suppose I should send my cat back out to live outside where, before I rescued him and took him in as a pet, he got his rear leg nearly chewed off by a raccoon and had two major infections (UTI and Kidney) that, even with the hundreds of dollars in medication and vet bills I payed, were very nearly fatal. By their logic, I would be kinder to him by letting him die rather than sit in a nice warm apartment with all the food and play he can handle (the guy has toys all over the place).

 

[Steel Tiger]

So true! There are actually folks who believe that having pets is cruelty to animals. I suppose I should send my cat back out to live outside where, before I rescued him and took him in as a pet, he got his rear leg nearly chewed off by a raccoon and had two major infections (UTI and Kidney) that, even with the hundreds of dollars in medication and vet bills I payed, were very nearly fatal. By their logic, I would be kinder to him by letting him die rather than sit in a nice warm apartment with all the food and play he can handle (the guy has toys all over the place).

I wonder what they would say about the rather disturbing feral cats we have down here. These are animals which have "returned" themselves to the wild in an environment not prepared for them. The result? Within 30 generations they have returned to the original wildcat size (between 5 and 15 kg) and are pretty much unrivaled as hunters. They are devastating the native animal species, especially the birds.

Which group of animals' rights should we look to uphold? The indigenous animals or those who have slipped the bonds of their human slavery?

 

[Hand Sword]

Since they are becoming endangered as a species, this cub should not be killed. As many as possible should be saved at this point.

 

[Jonathan Randall]

I wonder what they would say about the rather disturbing feral cats we have down here. These are animals which have "returned" themselves to the wild in an environment not prepared for them. The result? Within 30 generations they have returned to the original wildcat size (between 5 and 15 kg) and are pretty much unrivaled as hunters. They are devastating the native animal species, especially the birds.

Which group of animals' rights should we look to uphold? The indigenous animals or those who have slipped the bonds of their human slavery?

So true, which is why so many of these "hardcore" animal rights groups are so misguided. I'll keep my cat indoors, thank you.

I read about your cats! One that was killed was so large than DNA testing was done to see what it actually was (puma or feral cat). It was a feral cat! I live in a rural area and the feral cats at the stream outside my window will attack and even kill domestic cats. A few weeks ago I chased one off that was dragging my neighbors young cat down the stairs in its jaws. The little domestic survived, but what a scene that was.

 

[exile]

So true! There are actually folks who believe that having pets is cruelty to animals. I suppose I should send my cat back out to live outside where, before I rescued him and took him in as a pet, he got his rear leg nearly chewed off by a raccoon and had two major infections (UTI and Kidney) that, even with the hundreds of dollars in medication and vet bills I payed, were very nearly fatal. By their logic, I would be kinder to him by letting him die rather than sit in a nice warm apartment with all the food and play he can handle (the guy has toys all over the place).

The fact is, domestication changes a species' physical characteristics—the evolutionary ancestors of modern cattle were larger boned and reflect other differences that change in the course of domestication. The wild ancestor of domestic cats, say, was a different species from modern cats, even if a domestic cat can survive in the wild and eventually start a completely feral line of descendants. So from one point of view, house pets are animals which have adapted to a particular new environment and thrive in it—an environment involving a symbiotic relationship with another species. This kind of symbiosis in not unprecedented elsewhere in nature: there are plant/insect relationships which involve mutual protection and nourishment (wish I could think of the examples, but I know that certain African ant species work this way in relation to particular plants in their environment). To argue that the human/pet relationship is cruel and deprives animals of their `rights' (right to shorter lifespans in the wild? Right to hunger and suffering for much of the population much of the year?) is mystification pure and simple: it's based on a vision of a pristine nature in which the human ecosystem doesn not exist, and which therefore shouldn't be available as ecological niches for other species to take advantage of. Out and out mystification, as I say...

The weird thing is that this rejection of the human environment as a possible ecosystem for other animals goes hand in hand with a disinterest in individual members of animal species; the PETA people apparently are only concerned with whole populations. The logic in the case of this little bear seems to be: evolutionary pressure culls the weak members and makes the species stronger over time; evolutionary pressures thus determine that only a subset of offspring will survive; this particular cub would not survive under normal conditions, in accord with natural selection; therefore allowing it to live is to try to cheat the normal course of evolution. There are so many things wrong with this chain of reasoning that one doesn't know where to start, but at bottom, I believe it reflects a lack of basic warmth, the response of life to protect other life at the level of the individual creature.

 

[KempoGuy06]

I hope the little guy makes it and survives. The fact that people believe he needs to die because he has no mother is rediculous. Im really thankful humans arent like this and that someone didnt put a bullet in my head when my father left.

So from this day on im forming PEDA (People for the Eating of Delicious Animals) Who's in?

B

 

[Jade Tigress]

So from this day on im forming PEDA (People for the Eating of Delicious Animals) Who's in?

B

That's ok, I'm already a member of PETA (People Eating Tasty Animals)

 

[KempoGuy06]

That's ok, I'm already a member of PETA (People Eating Tasty Animals)

Thats cool. Im a memeber as well, but I though we could change it a little bit so that we can seperate ourselves from people with their views and kill baby animals mentality.

B

 

[Jade Tigress]

Thats cool. Im a memeber as well, but I though we could change it a little bit so that we can seperate ourselves from people with their views and kill baby animals mentality.

B

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

 

[Touch Of Death]

So true! There are actually folks who believe that having pets is cruelty to animals. I suppose I should send my cat back out to live outside where, before I rescued him and took him in as a pet, he got his rear leg nearly chewed off by a raccoon and had two major infections (UTI and Kidney) that, even with the hundreds of dollars in medication and vet bills I payed, were very nearly fatal. By their logic, I would be kinder to him by letting him die rather than sit in a nice warm apartment with all the food and play he can handle (the guy has toys all over the place).

While children are starving in Starvania!:soapbox:
Sean

 

[kenpotroop]

Isn't the cub already in a zoo? I swear, animal rights activists don't have any common sense at all.

Doesn't killing it or letting it die violate what these idiots stand for.

 

[exile]

Doesn't killing it or letting it die violate what these idiots stand for.

Uh-uh. See my earlier post (#46) above. PETA cares only about whole species, so far as I can tell. To hell with individual animals, if their survival depends on human intervention. By virtue of that intervention, the blind course of natural selection is supposedly thwarted; therefore such intervention is unacceptable, since it's natural selection that ensures the health of the species... you see the train of `thought'.

 

[Steel Tiger]

Uh-uh. See my earlier post (#46) above. PETA cares only about whole species, so far as I can tell. To hell with individual animals, if their survival depends on human intervention. By virtue of that intervention, the blind course of natural selection is supposedly thwarted; therefore such intervention is unacceptable, since it's natural selection that ensures the health of the species... you see the train of `thought'.

I'll have to get a hold of the PETA dictionary and find out how they define ethical and, well, animals.

I suppose they could have called the organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Species but the acronym for that is PETS!!