Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Animals aren't people too

I love animals. I have always had pets, and always will, as long as my amazingly tolerant wife never makes me choose between having pets in the house and having her. I recognize, however, that my cat is not the same as my kid. Animals aren't people. People are more important. That isn't to say they should be allowed to be mistreated, it is just to say that there are other considerations which may limit how much the treatment of animals should approximate the treatment of people. Also, there should be limits to our reaction to cruelty towards animals.

In Canada, 100 sled dogs were brutally murdered by a dog tour company. They were actually slaughtered. It is a horrendous case. It doesn't, however, mean there should be no sled rides for tourists. It just means you shouldn't be able to brutally slaughter your sled dogs when they are no longer needed.

An animal rights group in Pennsylvania is trying to buy Michael Vick's house and turn it into a rehabilitation center for abused dogs. This is just a silly waste of a lot of money. What's the point of this? To further punish someone who has already been punished? To raise awareness? Is it really more effective than printing a brochure or naming an award or even the center after Vick? Does targeting Vick really help, especially when he is already working to spread the message that what he did to dogs was wrong?

Animals are important, but that importance does not exist in a vacuum. There are other considerations to take into account, like profit, wastefulness, the proper functioning of our legal system, etc. Animals aren't people too.

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