It strikes me as a little sad that you wait until 50,000 dogs are brutally killed by the Chinese government rather than the 10+ million people killed by Mao.
Well that’s you back in the dark ages too, then.
There’s also the issue of killing folks’ pets, which is cruel not so much to the pet as it is to the pet’s owner. (That is, it’s cruel to the pet only inasmuch as bacon is cruel to the pig–a level of cruelty that most people find acceptable). Many folks form very close bonds with their pets, and killing them can cause emotional trauma.
Daniel
That’s true. The best salami is made from horse or donkey meat. Here in the Netherlands we have slices of smoked horse meat (paardenrookvlees) on our sandwiches for lunch or breakfast.
Again, 10 million people. 10 BLOODY MILLION? Were these 10 million people deaf, blind, dumb or crippled? While there’s a solid bet that some of them were, it certinaly couldn’t appplied to all of them. That said, THEY ALLOWED IT TO HAPPEN.
WWII taught the world a lesson never to be forgotten, if you stand on the tracks and let the train run you over, it will.
And I said I’ll try, I know how difficult it’ll be.
Absolutely. And i think the effect on the owners is something to consider.
But the OP has made clear that his main concern here is the dogs themselves. In fact, he has been quite emphatic that the Chinese people are pretty much to blame for their own condition. :rolleyes:
I was just arguing that, as long as the method of killing is the same in each case, i see no moral difference (in terms of animal cruelty) between killing a dog and killing a pig or a cow.
Don’t be stupid.
Too late. Too many years of you-know-what for breakfast.
Dog?
Stupid food. The Dope is way slow right so searching is tough but a while back a poster made the comment “You eat stupid food for breakfast” or some such, and it has become sort of a catch phrase.
shudder I’ll take your word for it.
buttonjockey308, you’re a contemptible piece of filth, you know that?
FTR I’ve eaten both horse (nice, like steak, surprisingly not tough) and dog (nasty, like rabbit or hare that’s been hung for too long). I still condemn the killing of 50K dogs in such a brutal way, but there are different cultural standards at work too.
Which presents a whole 'nother problem, because they don’t know whether the drink the brandy or use it to cook the dog.
Quote:
The OP is being such a contemptible blame-the-victim tool that I’m not at all talking to him. I think I misunderstood your argument to him as a more general one; sorry about that!
Daniel
Besides different cultural standards, they might not have the necessary equipment and finances to destroy these animals in a way that would make many in the Western world happy, much less the more “sensitive” animal rights types (we certainly need a puking smiley).
Enough multiple trucks with seperate cages so the dogs don’t tear each other up to transport dogs to a kill facility? Maybe a lack of Carbon Dioxide Chambers (how Animal Control still kills the cats and dogs where I live) or the material to make them or the gas itself? A lack of the necessary drug(s) to euthanize such a large number? The danger of firearms utilized in close proximity to humans? The necessary logistics to get equipment there fast enough and utilize it fast enough?
Beating them to death, which is a popular dispatch method in places with few firearms and cheap ammunition for trapped game, might have been the best most expidient action. With well placed shots to the head, one or two blows is all that is necessary. Gathering up men with heavy sticks probably was their best bet.
Hopefully, if economically feasible, a domestic dog vaccination program and a continued effort to minimize feral dog population will come about to help stave off the need to utilize mass kills including privately owned dogs.
Also, by reputation the Chinese government are quite thrifty with their use of ammunition - allegedly they bill the family of executed convicts for the bullet used to shoot them.
Authentic sauerbraten apparently is supposed to be made with horse meat. (I would guess you can only get it that way in Germany.)
Say, why is everybody acting so shocked over the OP?! Commies kill puppies! DUH!
It seems to me that the OP and subsequent supporters make a few valid points:
“was the wholesale slaughter of 50,000 pet dogs the best way to resolve the rabies outbreak.” (The local paper contends that it was a terrible thing but things had gotten so out of hand that the wholesale slaughter was the only possible way to contain the outbreak).
“was beating them to death in front of their owners really necessary?” Aside from the economic argument, they don’t even use lethal injection for human executions (decapitation being the preferred method) and there is some allussion to the Buddhist influence in the area (the communist Chinese government is pretty hostile to religion).
“we must exercise more discretion and care to protect some animals (such as dolphins, whales and large primates) than we might exercise to protect animals like Tuna and chickens” I think this goes without saying.
“pets are more valuable than livestock” (but what happens when you have livestock in one country that is normally pet in another or vice versa, but the point remains that even if someone had a pet cow in this country, it would seem cruel to kill that particular cow)
“we have a moral obligation not to be indiscriminately cruel and destructive.” However if you could save the life of your 4 year old daughter by slaughtering 50,000 dogs, would you hesitate for even a second?
“why kill them in front of their owner?” No idea, but it is easier to just kill them when you find them rather than take them somewhere else to kill them.
These arguments are lost in arguments like:
The human rights abuses are not enough to outrage me but now they’re killing dogs and THAT crosses the line (When will people realize that people are more important than animals).
There is something intrinsically “cruel” about eating dogs versus chickens (this is somewhere between mere cultural prejudice and outright racism).
The US only kills 10,000 dogs a day so that makes the guy that said “Big deal, more dogs than that are killed every day in the USA for weaker reasons than that.” a liar and should effectively shut him up. (the slaughter took place over 5 days so you can say the Chinese dog slaughter averaged 10,000 a day for 5 days.)
Little Billy lives with the fact that people in his neighborhood get dragged off by the police every year (some to never be seen again) and lives in a country where they have public executions will be scarred for life by the brutal death of his dog. (Little Billy probably has fellow Chinese that don’t eat as well as his dog).
All repressed people in some way deserve their repression because if they really wanted change, they could always revolt but dogs can’t revolt so killing dogs is not as bad as killiing humans. (What color is the sun where you live, the fact that humans have self determination means that they can be held accountable for self inflicted destructive behaviour (smoking, drug abuse, electing George Bush, etc.) but to blame people for being oppressed is ridiculous?
It’s not particularily though.
Rabbit is just delicious (cooked with hard cider, prunes, mustard sauce, wine sauce…plenty of possibilities). Amongst my favorite meats. Rabbits belong to the “food”, not “pet”, category. They have been raised for eons with the sole purpose of turning them into meat and fur, not for companionship. Considering them as pets is a novelty.
Update to the issue: In the South China Morning Post, there was an article about this very thing. Said article mentioned that one method of killing the dogs is to bury them alive en masse. If one accepts the need for eliminating the animals in the area, there is still no reason to eradicate them in a cruel and inhumane manner.