I feel like this has to be said regarding slaughtering of dogs/whales etc.

[Deleted]

I feel like my opinion here is controversial, and because of this I have never really said it aloud, until last week where, I was with my group of around 10 friends, 7 or so of all these people own a dog, and they were discussing the Chinese(?) tradition of eating dogs annually. They were calling it barbaric, and I could feel myself getting more irritated the more they talked about it, and eventually I kinda 'snapped' and just said "I don't understand why people think that is barbaric whereas tens of millions of cows, pigs, chickens etc. are slaughtered to feed us".

Noone replied at all and silence fell upon the group, I assume because they realise that I am correct, but it just irritates me that it's different for dogs because they're pets?

Every single year I am also tired of hearing about an amount of the Faroese population slaughtering whales, now, I understand this is different as I believe this is only for sport and nothing gets harvested. Regardless, I think the world is extremely hypocritical when they focus their attention on the Faroe Islands whilst animals are being bred for food, and they aren't giving a shit about that.

I for one fail to see much of a difference, and I know I will get some flack for that, because I understand we do it for our own survival, that being said, harvesting meat in the way we do is ridiculous due to us growing plants for cows to eat to get 'fattened up'. And experts believe we're slowly indirectly running out of 'meat' but that's another debate for another time.


I don't say this aloud too much - I do eat meat - but I would happily stop eating meat tomorrow if I thought that it would potentially save the lives of any animals, but realistically it wouldn't make a difference to the number of cows being bred and killed for example, I am aware that this is possibly extremely hypocritical but that is how I feel, and I wouldn't be able to convince a substantial amount of people to do the same to make a difference, I do not have that kind of time/resources at my disposal.

Back to the main point and to conclude, I think many people, including pretty much everyone in my 'group-of-friends' as well as my girlfriend should stop being so hypocritical on this subject. If dogs can't be killed for food, why can cows? (And those dogs aren't treated any worse than some livestock) And just to make it clear, I think that every form of animal killing is wrong, I am not saying that because we do it to cows that it is okay towards dogs, I am instead saying that if the world thinks it's wrong towards dogs, then it should be towards all animals!

Who's with me?

[I Push Buttons]

Because dogs have been bred over tens of thousands of years to be loving and/or helpful companion animals to man.

Livestock have been bred over tens of thousands of years to be docile... Live... Stock...

[Revi]

Completely agree. If people take issue with specific treatment of livestock that's fine, but only taking issues with it in cases where the animal provokes an emotional response in you (you see them as pets, or they look cute) is hypocritical.

[Elim Garak]

Here's a good sketch about vegetarianism and "saving" animals we eat:

[Deleted]

Because dogs have been bred over tens of thousands of years to be loving and/or helpful companion animals to man.

I think you perhaps missed the point? The Chinese(?) have a festival where they kill and cook hundreds of dogs to eat. And people think it's barbaric, disgusting and cruel. IT IS, but why is it ok when it's pigs or chickens? I get annoyed that people get so pissed when it's dogs but don't give 2 shits about sheep.

[Ayla]

The dog festival doesnt always use dog livestock, sometimes pets are stolen. So there is that.

As for the whales, I think stabbing them is inhumane. I would love to stop any and all fishing for 10 years. (except maybe bare minimum for products that arent food related, medicines etc). But in the end if I had to save a whale or a dog, assuming its not a pet, Id probably go with whale.

And no, Im not happy with how livestock currently kept either.

[Deleted]

I never understood why people feel so much for animals. It's just an animal.

[Deleted]

I never understood why people feel so much for animals. It's just an animal.

basically sums up how I feel about all those animal issues

maybe all the people who care so much about what happens to rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh (yes I've wanted to use that phrase for a while now) aka animals should instead focus their efforts on helping people

inb4 ppl r animals 2 hurr durr, guess what we're not because animals are the creatures that live on this planet but aren't us, it's a word to describe everything that isn't us, so by definition of the very word humans are not animals. animals and humans are only alike in the way that we're all living beings. stop misusing the word.

[Revi]

I never understood why people feel so much for animals. It's just an animal.

Well they're alive, they feel fear and pain, I don't see any justification for causing it unnecessarily.

[I Push Buttons]

I think you perhaps missed the point? The Chinese(?) have a festival where they kill and cook hundreds of dogs to eat. And people think it's barbaric, disgusting and cruel. IT IS, but why is it ok when it's pigs or chickens? I get annoyed that people get so pissed when it's dogs but don't give 2 shits about sheep.

Because we are, at the very least, supposed to be civilized about it. We are supposed to stun them before slaughtering so they are none the wise... We are supposed to slaughter them one by one... We are supposed to do it humanely.

Some companies do it, others don't... But even those that don't are a far cry from these Chinese festivals... Where they have 10 dogs in a little cage made to hold like two dogs... And they pull one out and slaughter it fully aware right in front of all the other dogs...

And like I said, this is all on top of the fact that these animals have been domesticated over thousands of generations for specific things... Livestock were selectively bred for thousands of years and now even genetically engineered to be food... No other purpose at all...

Dogs were not bred to be food for thousands of years...

[Neliah]

I don't like any type of slaughter. I don't care if it's cows, dogs, whales, lobsters.. I don't care. It's cruel no matter how you put it, and I'm not even a vegetarian - I eat meat extremely rarely. Regarding to what they do on the Faroe Islands, Taiji etc.. I'm not even gonna go there. I simply loathe anyone who support it - end of story.

On topic, we eat more meat than we should. People should look into this:

[Deleted]

Well they're alive, they feel fear and pain, I don't see any justification for causing it unnecessarily.

I don't really see it to be something that is as horrible as people portray it to be. Many want people who hurt animals to be put in prison for the same amount of time as people who hurt humans get. That's disproportionate.

[Deleted]

Well they're alive, they feel fear and pain, I don't see any justification for causing it unnecessarily.

there is no justification for it, but I don't understand how people can care so much, do they have nothing better to do in their lives? Especially since nature is a cruel mistress, animals get ripped to shreds and eaten alive in the wild on a daily basis anyway. Waste of time and good effort.

[Elim Garak]

Because we are, at the very least, supposed to be civilized about it. We are supposed to stun them before slaughtering so they are none the wise... We are supposed to slaughter them one by one... We are supposed to do it humanely.

No, we are supposed to do it effectively and animalely. Like mowing a lawn.

[I Push Buttons]

there is no justification for it, but I don't understand how people can care so much, do they have nothing better to do in their lives? Especially since nature is a cruel mistress, animals get ripped to shreds and eaten alive in the wild on a daily basis anyway. Waste of time and good effort.

Because they have pets that they love... They live with them for years, decades even... How is it that you are having trouble understanding this?

[Deleted]

Because they have pets that they love... They live with them for years, decades even... How is it that you are having trouble understanding this?

I've had pets, I don't get emotionally devestated when they've died. Everything that lives eventually dies.

[Deleted]

Because they have pets that they love... They live with them for years, decades even... How is it that you are having trouble understanding this?

the very pets they love (cats/dogs) are some of the most 'cruel' animals

making the irony all the more delicious


cats for example regularly play with their prey and torture it for minutes before finally eating it.

[Baracuda]

(And those dogs aren't treated any worse than some livestock)

This part is why, and the latter is irrelevant. What are you 5?

[Revi]

there is no justification for it, but I don't understand how people can care so much, do they have nothing better to do in their lives? Especially since nature is a cruel mistress, animals get ripped to shreds and eaten alive in the wild on a daily basis anyway. Waste of time and good effort.

Nature can be equally cruel to humans, doesn't mean human suffering is insignificant either.

[Deleted]

inb4 ppl r animals 2 hurr durr, guess what we're not because animals are the creatures that live on this planet but aren't us, it's a word to describe everything that isn't us, so by definition of the very word humans are not animals. animals and humans are only alike in the way that we're all living beings. stop misusing the word.

Always a good reason to link this.