Be Gentle to Animals

As a young boy, I read "Slaughter of the Innocent," which made my blood boil over with tales of cruel animal experimentation. I wanted to know why scientists were so evil and regardless of pain and suffering. My father had never heard of the book, which was a bestseller to my recollection, although I cannot verify it today, because the book doesn't have a Wikipedia entry. It is an old book, and people who disagree may feel that the less that is said about it, the better. They may have gotten away with destroying the wikipedia entry for this book, but they cannot destroy my memory or the Amazon listing, from which I obtained the cover art:


Later, I read that the book was discredited as being filled with exaggerations and lies. Perhaps that is so. Many of the anecdotes in the book seem fantastic and are not backed up by credible sources. Therefore the book can be dismissed as propaganda for the antivivisectionist movement. However, I still want to see a wikipedia article for it! I just don't feel qualified to write one, because all I have to go on is memory alone, and wikipedia looks for tighter standards than mere opinion and human memory. On wikipedia, you must cite sources already established in the media.

The verdict on this particular book aside, I still find credence in the antivivisectionist movement and its modern incarnation, PETA, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the favorite butt of jokes on television. I don't approve of some of the stunts by PETA activists, such as when celebrity actor Edward Furlong, drunk or high at the time, liberated lobsters from a grocery store tank and was arrested for the crime. Such celebrities try to draw attention to their cause and are succeeding, although little of the attention is favorable.

It would be a fine thing if humans resolved to treat animals better. If we ever encounter an advanced extraterrestrial species, the criteria by which we will be judged is how we treat other sentient beings. If our race is marked by cruelty to animals, then we will be judged as unworthy.

Meeting with intelligent extraterrestrial life seems far-fetched, but it could happen, which is why the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) was in Obama's federal budget. It was mocked by the Republicans and FOX news, who prefer to believe we are alone in the universe. The allocation for SETI, incidentally, is miniscule, a proverbial drop in the bucket, but has been included in all budgets, even under Republican administrations.

Whether we meet ET or not, we should want to deport ourselves in an ethical fashion. By breaking down the threads of compassion in society, cruelty to animals anticipates cruelty to humans. If it is acceptable to beat a dog or cat, then it is acceptable to beat another person. I am sure many of my readers know of cats or dogs more worthy of protection and affection than certain people. We will be a more war-like race if we abuse animals.

Many people agree that animals should be treated well, but then counter that there is nothing they can do about the laboratories where animals are being abused. However, many people have pets and abuse them in a myriad of ways that are quite common today:

• If you declaw your cat, that is abuse, because you are rendering it defenseless against children, who tend to be cruel, and against other animals. Try going through life without your fingers, and you will know what it is like to be a cat without claws.


• If you punish your pets with physical blows on a regular basis, that is abuse, and your strategy is not even working like it should. After a certain period of ownership, pets respond to the merest intonation of their master's voice. It is unnecessary and counterproductive to strike a pet. Instead of teaching the pet anything, you are teaching it to fear and hate you. One who strikes a pet is a villain who deserves to be struck himself.


• Keeping a dog chained up or in a fenced-in pen no larger than 10' x 10' is abuse. What crime did the dog commit to be imprisoned for life? It would be kinder to shoot the dog in the brain, rather than sentence it to life imprisonment beside its own excrement and urine.


• Cockfights and dogfights are relics from our ancestors, who were often at war. These traditions herald back to a past that is not quite erased. Fights between animals awaken the blood-lust in humans. Not much is required to reduce modern people into their ancestral equivalents. Do you want to live in a world where raiders might attack your village, kill you, rape your women, and plunder your treasure? If it is all right to mutilate, torture and slay dogs for sport, it is all right to slay humans for sport, as well. This is why dogfights have been made illegal.


• Spraying poisonous chemicals all over a lawn for no other reason than to prettify the grass, is negligence that harms wildlife and neighbor's pets. You are killing and hurting unknown quantities of birds, scurrying four-legged beasts, cats and dogs. In addition to this, the poisons you spray will enter the water you drink. There are better ways to control pests than through the use of poisons. Learn to adapt to nature rather than wasting money on poisons sold at the store that promise a quick fix.