Ok…so this will not be the best rant or the most indignant post the Pit has seen.
Admittedly I am an animal lover. I even like the ugly ones.
That said I an no PETA freak.
Still unnecessary cruelty is…well…unnecessary and this takes the cake for unnecessary.
No they are not cute doggies or bunnies but still…
Such useless and absurd torture of another creature, to no useful end, is appalling.
Torture all the mosquitoes you want (they kill more people than any other creature on the planet so they have it coming). Leave these things alone (if for no other reason than I think some of them will eat mosquitoes).
And to be Pit worthy fuck the Chinese for buying such things (nevermind US short comings…this is my rant).
Don’t use cats as your keychain, despite the cuteness factor.
You’d spend too much time trying to coax your keys out from under the bed, or down from the tree.
On the plus side, your keys would automatically home in on any cardboard box.
This is painting with a very broad brush but I honestly find the whole east Asian (well, Chinese and Korean, at least) attitude towards animals to be . . . bizarre. Like, 90% of gross animal food seems to come from there (mouse fetus wine?), they eat dogs (an animal which most cultures seem to regard as companions or dirty pests but not as food) and basically seem to be the only cultures I know of with no food taboos. I remember one time on the dope someone linked to a site showing people who eat, like, raw snakes (basically the snakes were grabbed alive, dipped in a vat of water and then sliced up with a huge knife and eaten) that of course took place in China. And now this.
I mean, from what I understand even really poor people in, say, Africa might eat parts of animals that we don’t in the West, but even they only eat things like lizards, insects and snakes in desperation. And in America, eating those types of things has become more a novelty, but from what I’ve heard in China/Korea those types of animals are something of a semi-frequent treat. I know that in France people eat frogs legs and in Scandanavia people eat fermented shark but again it seems like in east Asia it’s taken to a whole new level.
I’m sure someone will be along to rectify my ignorant viewpoints and I honestly welcome it, but from right now where I stand those are two cultures which have missed the, “some animals are for playing, some animals are for eating, and some are for avoiding” train the rest of the world has gotten on.
Chinese weren’t the only ones to eat Dog. Dog was a delicacy, I understand, among American Indians. They were a particular delicacy in Polynesia. And I believe in Australia they are dingo.
In addition, people eat Horse in many parts of the world, including Europe, despite its reputation as a pet.
Many of these folks feel the same way you do about theseanimals – it doesn’t stop their eating them. It’s one reason dog is a delicacy – you don’t want to kill your pets too often. Why people eat different animals is a complex question. I subscribe to anthropologist Marvin Harris’ Cultural Materialism theories, as I’ve said before on this Board. According to that, the biggest reason people don’t eat Dog (or Cat) is that dogs and cats live off meat, and don’t convert it with great efficiency. If you can get the meat to raise a dog, you’re better off eating it directly, rather than feeding the dog and butchering it later. (There have been exceptions – dogs that are allowed to roam free and get their own food don’t cost you meat or effort, so there’s an advantage to eating them. Harris also claims that the Aztecs tried to breed a grain-fed dog. Aztecs didn’t have any large domesticated meat animals.)
I agree.There does not really seem to be the concept of respecting animals in Chinese culture. At least this is how it seems to me - if someone would like to come along to dispel this belief, please do so. I have seen videos from China of people eating animals alive. They actually fry a fish while it’s still alive, deliberately keeping it alive…one side of it will be battered and fried and the other side will be flopping around. It’s fucking sick. Don’t they have any concept that animals are to be treated humanely and respected for providing food? Most cultures kill animals for food but they go out of their way to treat the animals humanely. The Chinese seem to do the exact opposite. I seem to recall stories about bears being “farmed” for their gall bladders in China as well.
I feel like they would offer these as a free gift for ordering 2 or more bonsai kittens. I could play with them on my water bed containing a killer whale fetus!
