"Disposable" Animals

Here is a story about Wade Pilloud, a school principal who shot and killed two orphaned kittens on school property in Indus, Minn.

Why is it that people in our society view animals as disposable? I suspect that part of the reason is they are conditioned to think that way from an early age. Pilloud claims that he shot the kittens to prevent them from suffering and starvation. Surely, there were ways to prevent these two kittens from suffering and/or starving to death other than shooting them to death. While the story doesn't provide details as to how old these kittens were, presumably they could have been hand fed and nursed out of infancy and then fostered out to good homes. Think about what a positive message saving these kittens would have sent to all of the kids in the school, namely, that animals' lives matter and ought to be respected. Unfortunately, the message that was actually sent to the students by this unthinking principal was that animals are disposable—that it is o.k. to kill them for convenience. When children see adults behaving that way, they come to think that such behavior is acceptable, and the cycle continues for another generation.

Sadly, the students probably learned another lesson as well: How to do the unspeakable—e.g., kill an innocent kitten—with a good conscience! The art of rationalization: "I didn't want those kittens to suffer." As if killing these kittens were the only possible way to prevent them from suffering and starving to death. It is one thing to kill a horribly injured animal to put her out of her misery. It's quite another to kill two healthy kittens whose mother was killed by a lethal animal trap. [One wonders why there was such a dangerous animal trap on or near the vicinity of the school in the first place.]

Another disturbing thing about the story is how the kittens themselves are almost entirely absent referents. Pilloud said, "the shooting endangered no one." Well, it certainly endangered the two kittens. But they are "no ones". They don't count. The people who were upset with Pilloud's actions don't seem to care that two innocent kittens were needlessly killed. They only seem worried that the shooting might have put children at risk. Again, the kittens are nearly invisible victims in the story. Also, look at the alleged crimes Pilloud is charged with: "felony possession of a firearm on school property" and "reckless discharge of a firearm." There is no suggestion that he be charged with "animal abuse". Once again, the victims are absent.

It is bad enough that two kittens had to needlessly lose their mother to a lethal animal trap [Such traps should be outlawed. Unfortunately, these traps remain legal because of the powerful fur industry lobby. If you don't want your companion animal to be killed by such a trap, boycott the fur industry and the companies who make these traps!]. It's even worse that these innocent kittens were rewarded for their first misfortune by being needlessly killed themselves.

It's doubtful that Pilloud will be convicted of any crime, and even if he is, it is doubtful that he will see any jail time. He did, however, receive a retirement settlement from the school district. So, in all likelihood, he will get to live out the rest of his life in comfortable surroundings. Unfortunately, the kittens no longer have that option.

From Today's New York Times

To the Editor:

Re “‘It Was Love at First Sight,’ and So, Before Long, Benny Mason Got Hitched” (news article, Oct. 9):

Can there be any doubt that horses do not belong in the city? Life on the streets of Manhattan is miserable for these horses that have to pull oversized loads in heavy traffic, where they are constantly avoiding collisions with careless and impatient drivers, and in arduous weather conditions.

In the summer, they breathe in lung-searing exhaust fumes and plod along scorching asphalt. In the winter, they endure freezing temperatures.

It’s unfathomable that anyone can support these rides. How many dead horses and hospitalized people will it take before the City Council bans them?

Jennifer O’Connor
Norfolk, Va., Oct. 11, 2006
The writer, on the staff of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, writes for its Animals in Entertainment Campaign.

Elephant Revenge

Mylan Engel sent a link to this.

Smarts

Here is a New York Times op-ed column about animal intelligence.

Deontology for Humans, Consequentialism for Animals

Here is a sad story about animals who have been treated as mere means to human ends.

James Griffin on Environmental Ethics

The history of ethics is a history of successive extensions of the boundaries of concern—from family to community, from community to humanity, from humanity to animals. What is now being attempted is a further extension to the environment. Will environmental ethics always see itself as constrained to find a link to someone’s interests? Our obligations to individual animals, as bearers of interests, tell us nothing about the respect that we may owe to their species—or, in general, to the environment. Environmental ethics is itself in its infancy, and may develop in either of two ways. We may be able to develop it by developing the resources of an already established ethical tradition. Or we may find that the problems it presents are so discontinuous with the concerns that shaped older ethics that we must develop quite new concepts, which would then have in some way to be tied in with our old ones. There have been distinguished attempts to follow the first course, but my guess is that in the end we shall have to follow the second. I suspect that we should see environmental ethics as a search for responses that are ‘fitting’ or ‘appropriate’. There are things in the environment—a virgin forest, say, or the ecosystem of a coral reef—to which the appropriate response is awe or wonder, and the appropriate behaviour is the behaviour that awe and wonder prompt. That there need be no interests at stake does not mean that there are no appropriate or inappropriate actions. It is probably better to speak, though, in terms of appropriate and inappropriate actions rather than in terms of forests’ having ‘rights’ and humans’ having ‘duties’ to them.

(James Griffin, Value Judgement: Improving Our Ethical Beliefs [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996], 126-7 [endnotes omitted])

From Today's New York Times

To the Editor:

Re “Leafy Green Sewage” (Op-Ed, Sept. 21):

Nina Plank [sic] speaks to a symptom of our addiction to industrial agriculture and our insistence on year-round availability of all foods.

We have not only shortchanged the lives and diets of the animals, but have also created a system that allows consumers to be vegetarians and still be poisoned by meat.

Traceability is critical, and the best way to ensure it is not through more government regulation and big business, but through stronger relationships with the individual farmers who grow our food.

Todd Wickstrom
Ann Arbor, Mich., Sept. 21, 2006
The writer is a co-founder of Heritage Foods USA.

Cows and Spinach

Here is a New York Times op-ed column about the E. coli outbreak.

Porkopolis

Would it be anthropocentric to describe this pig as resourceful?

From Today's New York Times

To the Editor:

Re “Venezuela’s Passion: Twisting the Tail of an Angry Beast” (news article, Sept. 10):

The use of animals for human entertainment is always disturbing and cruel, whether it is at a rodeo, a bullfight or the circus.

What this article describes, though, is truly horrendous. I cannot imagine the pain inflicted on this poor bull.

I hope that we as a species will realize someday that treating animals as not feeling pain has its repercussions.

In a very macho culture, this practice is surely the height of cowardice.

Who are really the angry beasts?

Nancy Correa
Wethersfield, Conn., Sept. 10, 2006

Peter Singer Unplugged

My friend Joe Culotta informs me that Peter Singer, who has been called "the dangerous philosopher," will be the guest on KCBI radio this afternoon at 5:00 Central Time. It's a Christian radio station, so the discussion should be interesting. (I don't know the topic, if there is one.) If you're in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, you can listen to the program by tuning your radio to 90.9 FM. If you're out of town, you can have it streamed via your computer. See here for details.

Addendum: I just listened to the entire one-hour radio program. Peter Singer did not appear; nor was there any mention of him. You got some 'splainin' to do, Joe! To those of you who relied on me to your detriment, I'm sorry.

Extremism in Defense of Liberty

One of my readers sent a link to this essay about animal-rights extremism.

Horse Slaughter Yet Again

Mylan Engel continues the comment thread here.

Equicide

Here, courtesy of Mylan Engel, is a story about the horse-slaughtering plant in DeKalb, Illinois.

Horses

The following propositions are inconsistent:

1. It is wrong to slaughter horses for human consumption.
2. It is not wrong to slaughter cows for human consumption.
3. There is no morally relevant difference between slaughtering horses for human consumption and slaughtering cows for human consumption.

Nobody can accept all three of these propositions. Which do you reject?

Don't Kill the Whale

Here is a New York Times story about the whales of Puget Sound.

Fish

Here is a New York Times op-ed column about tuna.

From Today's New York Times

To the Editor:

Mark Derr’s criticism of Cesar Millan misses an essential point: Most dog owners and, unfortunately, most so-called dog trainers, are not behaviorists or animal ethologists. And most dog owners cannot afford to hire someone who will take weeks or months to train an unruly pet.

Mr. Millan’s formula of exercise, discipline and affection works on all but the most extreme cases because the dog is, first and foremost, an animal with needs that cannot be ignored.

Chief among these is the need for exercise, which in most families is also a need of the human members that goes unmet.

Exercise works wonders because it satisfies much of the natural need for play that can quickly turn to aggression if not fulfilled.

Many dog owners believe that they can love their dogs into good, companionable behavior, and become frustrated or frightened when that love proves inadequate to the task.

Mr. Derr’s point, that dominance is not the answer, simply ignores the more salient and central message of Cesar Millan’s method: that dogs, and people, need structure to feel secure.

Julie Shemitz
Sherman Oaks, Calif., Sept. 1, 2006

Crocodile Hunter

Can we learn something from this senseless death? Wild animals are not playthings. They do not exist to entertain humans; they are not resources for our use; and they most emphatically should not be captured, transported, and displayed (in zoos, carnivals, or circuses) for human amusement. We humans are one animal species among many on this planet. We do not own them or it. We must learn to live in peace with our fellow travelers. I liked Steve Irwin, and I'm sorry to hear of his premature death; but there's a moral here. Leave wild animals alone.

From Today's New York Times

To the Editor:

Re “Butterfly Kiss-Off,” by Jeffrey A. Lockwood (Op-Ed, Aug. 24):

The release of farmed butterflies into the environment risks serious harm to our wild butterflies, which play important roles as pollinators, early warning indicators of the state of the environment and natural nourishment for the human spirit.

Releasing farmed organisms into the environment can diminish the genetic fitness of and spread diseases to the wild populations. The farmed butterflies do not increase the number of butterflies (which is regulated by the availability of suitable habitat and the prevalence of diseases and predators), but can decrease the number of wild butterflies.

We do not expect that the Agriculture Department will soon ban “releasing” farm butterflies into the environment. But we believe that when people who buy farm butterflies and “release” them at weddings or after using them in schools learn that this harms wild butterflies and results in the abuse and death of the farmed butterflies, they will stop buying them.

Jeffrey Glassberg
President, North American Butterfly Association
Morristown, N.J., Aug. 24, 2006