let me tell you about wiggles - and our own humanity

[The Straight Story]

Wiggles is our dog. A half breed - half Jack Russel and Half Miniature Dachshund. Chocolate in color, a beautiful little dog.

When my daughter takes wiggles' dad out for a walk, wiggles goes crazy wanting his turn. He sits at the window and barks.

When my daughter puts her dolls' clothes on him, he just get this look of desperation but puts up with it. When Hannah grabs him and carries him to the bathroom with her, he goes along. She does all sorts of things to him, and he just sighs. Buster, his dad, is not so sociable with our daughter - but he does get along with her, he is just not as nice and snaps if she kicks him off his couch. Wiggles just shrugs it off.

No one cares about wiggles' color, his religion (if he has one), his sex, orientation, etc. He is just loved as he is. His actions define him, and nothing more.

He feels, he whimpers, he anticipates things, etc. As do so many other species on this planet.

I am no vegan, never will be. But I can see that animals, like humans, have personalities and feelings. I have seen his head hang in shame when he is caught in the trash. I have seen his looks as he is carted off by my daughter for tea parties.

I am not against eating meat - but I am against the cruel treatment of animals that we want to place on our dinner plate. I got some 'beefs' with peta and how it works at times, but also like that they fight for 'rights' for animals.

Cruelty towards other species, or even towards our own species of course, is just wrong.

Could I kill an animal and eat it? yep. Been there, done that. But I sure as hell would feel guilt and dismay if I knew the life of that creature I was about to eat was spent in hell. And in that regards I fight with our brethren in trying to make things better for the short life of those we are about to eat. I have caught, killed, and eaten many fish myself - but I always try to do right by them in not making them suffer. May seem silly to some, but to me it is worthwhile to show some respect to those creatures we are about to eat. And I will say, fresh fish is damned good :)

Like many things in our big tent on the left I try, though sometimes fail I will admit, to see where others are coming from. And on this issue I can see that - although I disagree on some core issues (like eating other species is bad, wrong, evil, etc and so on).

So on this topic I think we can agree - treating other species poorly is wrong. Period.

Now to those that might ask - would I eat Wiggles? If I had to, yep. Fry him up with some salt and pepper and a little flour. But to me he is a pet and not a meal, but if it came down to it and I needed food and he and a fellow human were all there was to eat - I would eat him - unless the other human was ann coulter or her ilk. Then I would fry them up and feed both me and wiggles :) I got standards ya know!

Overall - I respect our vegans, and those among us who want to make life better for those we might soon find on our plates. I might not always agree with you on it all, but I think we all can agree - from a progressive viewpoint - that animals don't deserve to be treated like crap.

[Prophet 451]

1. Fully agreed

And I'm a guy who used to hunt on a regular basis.

That said, there's no way I'd be able to eat either of our two cats.

[diane in sf]

2. Famine preparation: train your cats to bring home rodents and birds and then

everyone can eat. My cat use to always leave me the tail and ears of the mice she'd catch. Right by my bed so I could admire them before I did anything else.

[NMMNG]

3. I don't even know what to say

At least not without being impolite. :wow:

[ConsAreLiars]

4. Spend some time exploring Temple Grandin's site and her life.

http://www.templegrandin.com/

She was raised as an autistic child on a cattle ranch and came to believe she, unlike most, saw her environment in pictures rather than words, much like cows with which identified, and later developed slaughterhouse designs that made their deaths as benign as feasible (unexpected and quick, rather than preceded by panic and terror).

[fasttense]

6. I read about her in a book on autism ConsAreLiars. You are the only other person I know

who knows about her. The book was great. Thanks for reminding me of it.

[NMMNG]

7. I'm quite familiar with Temple Grandin

I've worked with adults who have developmental disabilities half my life. Reading Grandin's work helped give me insights into the minds and experiences of people with autism I had never been able to get from any professional training. Her work with animals and her ability to empathize with them is also amazing.

[OneBlueSky]

5. banning factory farming would be a good start . . . n/t

.