Couldn't hold my tongue....

[spicedogs]

I was disturbed about GK's recent column about the state fair. I think that Pig Lover Anonymous should uprise and picket outside his home. (OMG, am I asking for trouble or not?) I am really upset about his treatment of pigs. Not so much the eating of pork, but the suggestion of whacking a pig. So, i went to salon.com and posted this comment on his column:


GK, do you whack your children? Why would you whack a pig? If you are around your animals and know how to handle them, kind gestures and training go much farther than violence. In fact, llamas that are not very well trained are nasty animals that hiss and spit. I believe that Democrats want to view themselves as kind and not violent people. I am a proud Democrat, and I believe that you view yourself as proud Democrat, too. Then why view violence as a means of obedience?




    

Comments

[boheme06.livejournal.com]

Whether an animal is hissy or not doesn't mean someone should kill them. But it's an issue that's going to be debated for a very long time, why animals are eaten and the like. I think we're on the losing team. :(

[spicedogs.livejournal.com]

I gather that you are a vegetarian. Am I correct?

[boheme06.livejournal.com]

Not really. I just don't eat red meat.

[mythicfeline.livejournal.com]

Well, as someone who got chased around Hyde Park by the Queen's geese outside Kensington Palace, I'm inclined to say that it was because I didn't understand them. I may have been doing the one thing to provoke but had no idea I was doing it.

I volunteered last May at the bird facility at a animal sanctuary, Best Friends Animal Society. The birds ranged from peafowl, geese, swans, ducks, parrots, cockatiels, doves, ravens, with a roaming band of wild turkeys, to keep things interesting. They have chickens from time to time, but they have always ended up getting adopted.

The one thing that struck me is how far outside the mammalian matrix, these animals are, which is why we don't "get" them. The handlers worked magic with these birds. So it is possible. Me they saw coming a mile away and weren't going to let me off so easy.

Having spent a couple afternoons with them was good for me. I grew to care a lot about them. I was sorry they had lost their persons, were abused or misunderstood, just like their counterparts outside the sanctuary.

[spicedogs.livejournal.com]

Maybe that's the secret of it all, we don't understand their species. We understand mammals because we are mammals.