# 50000 dogs = 3 Humans, the new Chinese math. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 1, 2006, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50000-dogs-3-humans-the-new-chinese-math/366912 "2006-08-01T17:45:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50000-dogs-3-humans-the-new-chinese-math/366912/21 "2006-08-01T19:57:03Z")
[QUOTE=woodstockbirdybird] Safe from the threat of rabies? [/QUOTE] If so, little Billy needs to learn that rabies resides primarily in wildlife populations, and that many people who get rabies get it from wildlife. He should also learn that instead of clubbing his dog to death, they could have given the dog a rabies shot that would have cost very little. He should also ask why his parents gave him such a strange, Westernized name. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50000-dogs-3-humans-the-new-chinese-math/366912/22 "2006-08-01T19:59:25Z")
[QUOTE=woodstockbirdybird] Safe from the threat of rabies? [/QUOTE] Yes, I’m sure a five year old understands that. :rolleyes: (Unless of course, you are joking, in which case, NEVER MIND). **Blanche** , the dogs that are killed in the US are put down with an injection. You aren’t honestly comparing the two? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50000-dogs-3-humans-the-new-chinese-math/366912/23 "2006-08-01T20:02:31Z")
[QUOTE=woodstockbirdybird] Safe from the threat of rabies? [/QUOTE] I’m pretty sure that, in the course of watching your beloved pet yanked from your arms and being beaten to a bloody pulp right before your eyes, the thought that you are free of rabies from a dog who probably didn’t have them in the first place would be ranked somewhere just below “I wonder what wood that club is made out of?” Unless, of course, your relation to the dog was such that you were thankful for the officer for doing what you were going to do anyway… ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50000-dogs-3-humans-the-new-chinese-math/366912/24 "2006-08-01T20:02:52Z")
[QUOTE=Left Hand of Dorkness] So, wouldn’t that mean you DON’T go along with Leary’s story? I’m so confused. Daniel [/QUOTE] I’m probably not explaining myself well (wouldn’t be the first time), so I’ll try again. If sharks, unsuitable for food, were getting caught in the tuna nets and then left to die, no one would care. The same animal rights activists (ARA) wouldn’t be able to drum up public support to get the practices changed. However, dolphins (which are much, much smarter than fish, and possibly most mammals) are caught. Dophins are cute! So to save the inedible, unsalable dolphin, ARA can mount a public campaign to change fishing methods. I am _for_ a change that reduces the waste of marine life. I am _against_ a change simply for the reason that dolphins deserve better than the tuna or my hypothetical sharks simply because they are dolphins. I believe Leary’s point here is that no one cares how the food feels (true about most food animals), but don’t hurt the cute animals who perform for us in Sea World. The subtext I picked up is that no one would really care if Jaws bought the farm with Charlie the Tuna. ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50000-dogs-3-humans-the-new-chinese-math/366912/25 "2006-08-01T20:06:27Z")
Oh my God…Oh my God. I really, really thought this thread was about 3 people eating 50,000 hot dogs. I never would have opened it if I had known what it was really about. It’s going to take a very long time to get the image of dogs being beaten to death in front of their owners out of my mind. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50000-dogs-3-humans-the-new-chinese-math/366912/26 "2006-08-01T20:07:08Z")
[QUOTE=D\_Odds] wever, dolphins (which are much, much smarter than fish, and possibly most mammals) are caught. Dophins are cute! [/quote] I think this is where I’m getting the disconnect. Leary seems to be focusing on cuteness; I’m focusing on intelligence. The two are completely unrelated (see also Sarah Michelle Gellar and Stephen Hawking). You seem to be equating the two in this passage. > [@](#): > > I am _for_ a change that reduces the waste of marine life. I am _against_ a change simply for the reason that dolphins deserve better than the tuna or my hypothetical sharks simply because they are dolphins. But nobody’s saying they deserve better because they’re dolphins; they’re saying they deserve better because they’re more self-aware, with all that entails. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50000-dogs-3-humans-the-new-chinese-math/366912/27 "2006-08-01T21:57:46Z")
[QUOTE=buttonjockey308] I can deal with the ‘dogs as delicacy’ thing, it’s cruel, sure, but it’s culture. [/quote] Why is it even cruel? It’s no more cruel to kill a dog for food than to kill a cow, or a pig, or a chicken for the same reason. [QUOTE=buttonjockey308] Knowing how difficult it will be, I will endeavor to never spend another of my hard earned American Dollars on a single thing made in, on, or near China. [/quote] I’m sure the sex doll and adult diaper industry will miss your business. [QUOTE=buttonjockey308] The real pity is, that, like Africa, they’ve had so many thousands of years to perfect an existance, yet still choose to live like it’s the 7th goddamn century. [/quote] You’re an idiot. [QUOTE=buttonjockey308] And yes, their human rights abuses are horriffic, there’s no question about that, but humans can stand up for themselves. Humans can think, and stand together and fight against oppression if they choose. Dogs can’t. [/QUOTE] The human rights abuses weren’t enough for a boycott, but the dogs are? ---
**Author:** ![Blanche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Blanche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blanche)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50000-dogs-3-humans-the-new-chinese-math/366912/28 "2006-08-01T22:15:31Z")
[QUOTE=woodstockbirdybird] Cite, you dizzy bitch? [/QUOTE] [http://www.americanhumane.org/site/PageServer?pagename=nr\_fact\_sheets\_animal\_euthanasia](http://www.americanhumane.org/site/PageServer?pagename=nr_fact_sheets_animal_euthanasia) ---
**Author:** ![Blanche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Blanche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blanche)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50000-dogs-3-humans-the-new-chinese-math/366912/29 "2006-08-01T22:17:24Z")
[QUOTE=Blanche] [http://www.americanhumane.org/site/PageServer?pagename=nr\_fact\_sheets\_animal\_euthanasia](http://www.americanhumane.org/site/PageServer?pagename=nr_fact_sheets_animal_euthanasia) [/QUOTE] [http://www.3arkangels.com/Ark\_Angels/Statistics.htm](http://www.3arkangels.com/Ark_Angels/Statistics.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50000-dogs-3-humans-the-new-chinese-math/366912/30 "2006-08-01T22:21:21Z")
[QUOTE=Blanche] [http://www.3arkangels.com/Ark\_Angels/Statistics.htm](http://www.3arkangels.com/Ark_Angels/Statistics.htm) [/QUOTE] And said animals are taken and bludgeoned to death in front of horrified little kids? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Blanche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Blanche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blanche)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50000-dogs-3-humans-the-new-chinese-math/366912/31 "2006-08-01T22:29:41Z")
[QUOTE=Guinastasia] And said animals are taken and bludgeoned to death in front of horrified little kids? :dubious: [/QUOTE] Does it really matter how they are killed? Bludgeoning is probably more humane in most cases than the way they are usually killed in gas chambers, where the animals tend to claw each other apart as they fight to get air. I know I’d prefer being beaten to death than slow suffocation in a room full of others who share my fate. ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50000-dogs-3-humans-the-new-chinese-math/366912/32 "2006-08-01T22:34:58Z")
[QUOTE=Blanche] [http://www.3arkangels.com/Ark\_Angels/Statistics.htm](http://www.3arkangels.com/Ark_Angels/Statistics.htm) [/QUOTE] I take that 9.6 million (animals euthanized) figure and divide it by 365 (days in a year) and get 26,301.36986301369. More or less. One suspects that animals other than dogs are included in the first figure. You are way short of your 50,000. ---
**Author:** ![Blanche](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Blanche](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blanche)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50000-dogs-3-humans-the-new-chinese-math/366912/33 "2006-08-01T22:53:41Z")
[QUOTE=Contrapuntal] I take that 9.6 million (animals euthanized) figure and divide it by 365 (days in a year) and get 26,301.36986301369. More or less. One suspects that animals other than dogs are included in the first figure. You are way short of your 50,000. [/QUOTE] OK, I stand corrected. I’ll change my statement to “more animals than that are killed for weaker reasons every week in the USA”. How long did it take the Chinese to kill the 50,000 dogs? ---
**Author:** ![Contrapuntal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e274bd/32.png) [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50000-dogs-3-humans-the-new-chinese-math/366912/34 "2006-08-01T22:58:42Z")
[QUOTE=Blanche] OK, I stand corrected. I’ll change my statement to “more animals than that are killed for weaker reasons every week in the USA”. How long did it take the Chinese to kill the 50,000 dogs? [/QUOTE] Who knows? How about you check your facts before blowing gas out yo ass? And while you are at it, why not try to read and comprehend the cites you provide? How long would that have taken? ---
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50000-dogs-3-humans-the-new-chinese-math/366912/35 "2006-08-01T23:06:33Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Amazing] I don’t think any of Africa is in the 7th century. And I still don’t understand why this is the reason you’re boycotting China. I mean, I know you said: But, are you saying that simply because humans have more capabilities than dogs to fight tyranny, all the human rights abuses of China…the slave labor, the denial of freedom of speech, the unfair trials, the excessive capital punishment…all of that is less of a big deal to you than killing a bunch of dogs? None of that is enough to make you boycott China, but killing some dogs, is? [/QUOTE] Oh no? Friend, I’m not sure that I think everyone should drive a Hummer and live in a high rise, but Africa, the cradle of bloody civilization, is, in some notable locations, no further along than they were a thousand years ago, except now, the countries of northern Africa have supplied guns and drugs, and grown men rape infants to "cure’’ their AIDS, and female circumcision is a standard practice in some locations. That’s as 7th century as you can get IMO. Actually, yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. It’s the same reason that I don’t feel for the people in, say Cuba, or Iraq, or Iran. If they truly want a revolution, if the majority TRULY wants change, they will get it, and at any cost. Humans have that ability. The brutal ad hoc ‘murder’ of truly innocent animals because THREE people got rabies, strips away all of the facade that China puts up, and shows the government for the brutal, sadistic, yet inexplicably lazy cauldron of violence it is. ---
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50000-dogs-3-humans-the-new-chinese-math/366912/36 "2006-08-01T23:14:54Z")
[QUOTE=mhendo] Why is it even cruel? It’s no more cruel to kill a dog for food than to kill a cow, or a pig, or a chicken for the same reason. [/QUOTE] The cruelty is an OPINION. We don’t eat dogs here, they’re cute, they’re smart, and they help us. The next time your chicken scares off a prowler, we can talk about what is and isn’t cruelty. > [@](#): > > I’m sure the sex doll and adult diaper industry will miss your business. Yes, of course, because those are the ONLY things made in China. (and you call _me_ the idiot.) > [@](#): > > You’re an idiot. Fuck you. > [@](#): > > The human rights abuses weren’t enough for a boycott, but the dogs are? Yes, see above. **Blanche** :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50000-dogs-3-humans-the-new-chinese-math/366912/37 "2006-08-01T23:48:18Z")
[QUOTE=Guinastasia] Yes, I’m sure a five year old understands that. :rolleyes: (Unless of course, you are joking, in which case, NEVER MIND). [/QUOTE] Yes, joking. Sorry. I thought it would be obvious. [QUOTE=Mindfield] I’m pretty sure that, in the course of watching your beloved pet yanked from your arms and being beaten to a bloody pulp right before your eyes, the thought that you are free of rabies from a dog who probably didn’t have them in the first place would be ranked somewhere just below “I wonder what wood that club is made out of?” Unless, of course, your relation to the dog was such that you were thankful for the officer for doing what you were going to do anyway… [/QUOTE] See above. ---
**Author:** ![Walter\_Windchill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Walter\_Windchill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walter_Windchill)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2006, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50000-dogs-3-humans-the-new-chinese-math/366912/38 "2006-08-01T23:55:14Z")
[QUOTE=buttonjockey308] The next time your chicken scares off a prowler, we can talk about what is and isn’t cruelty. [/QUOTE] I’m not saying this isn’t an interesting argument, I’m just saying it made me laugh out loud for several minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50000-dogs-3-humans-the-new-chinese-math/366912/39 "2006-08-02T00:13:20Z")
I’m just bothered by the fact that they need to beat the dogs to death. They should just shoot them. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50000-dogs-3-humans-the-new-chinese-math/366912/40 "2006-08-02T00:17:08Z")
In addition to being cruel, beating the dogs to death means they can’t test them for rabies, AIUI. That would be useful information to have, if the goal were to get treatment for people for whom it might not be too late. 360 dog bites per year- if those animals have an unknown rabies vaccination status, you have those animals euthanized, and test them for rabies. It’s a manageable problem, and has to be easier and more cost-effective than clubbing 50,000 dogs to death. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50000-dogs-3-humans-the-new-chinese-math/366912.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/50000-dogs-3-humans-the-new-chinese-math/366912.md?page=3)