Marty
05-08-2008, 08:46 PM
Fort Myers,FL -- The arrest of two men in Bonita Springs on charges of dogfighting was one of three recent stories that raise questions about human treatment of animals. None make us look very good.
Dogfighting indecent
The defense has been offered that dogfighting has a long tradition and has survived as part of the culture of certain groups.
That might carry weight in societies where animal fighting is legal and open. But dogfighting has been illegal in most of the U.S. for a century or more. Its practice is part of a culture of lawlessness and animal abuse, as witness the brutal execution by hanging and electrocution of sub-performing dogs in the organization associated with former NFL quarterback Michael Vick. Gambling and drugs are often part of the scene, along with gangs.
That's the "culture" we're talking about here, a criminal culture that equates manhood with brutality.
Dogfighting is illegal, regularly prosecuted and generally despised.
Our plea here is for those among whom dogfighters live not to condone their sport. The impromptu Bonita Springs dogfight was the center of the gleeful attention of a small crowd of spectators. All of those people come from households where children could be endangered by dogs made vicious by fighting. This was not organized dogfighting with gambling and the rest of it; it was spontaneous expression of the lousy values of some people in that community.
Where are the decent people in that neighborhood? Where is their outrage?
Children should not grow up thinking this is what real men do for amusement.
Horse racing worth saving
With dogfighting in mind, it's easy to see that thoroughbred horse racing, for all its problems, for all the inevitability of injuries and deaths, is not animal cruelty.
It may need reform, and may be under heavy pressure to change after the very public death of Eight Belles after she collapsed with two broken legs at the Kentucky Derby Saturday.
Horse breeders and racers have too much invested in the long life and health of their animals to deliberately harm them. Horse racing has always produced deaths and will, like car racing, where the fatalities are all human. The only way to eliminate risk is to eliminate excitement.
But some experienced critics - not the fringe animal-rights kooks - say that 3-year-olds with still-undeveloped bones and joints are too young to run in races like the Derby, and are being pushed to do so for the money. A well-known horse surgeon, Dr. Wayne McIlwraith of Colorado State University, said these huge horses put such force on their tiny legs racing that injuries are devastating, requiring that they be killed.
There are other issues: Are synthetic tracks safer, are steroids and other medications over-used, could the animals be bred for more ankle strength? But any reform should preserve racing, not euthanize it.
Pet owners heedless
Before we condemn horse racing we had better take a long look at the way many ordinary people deal with pet ownership.
It is not a reassuring picture.
Southwest Florida animal shelters are more crowded than usual these days. Even in normal times, people thoughtlessly acquire, then abandon dogs, cats and other creatures they finally realize they can't care for, or simply don't want to. In the meantime they have failed to have them spayed or neutered, which means in the case of animals left in the woods, their negligence will echo down through generations of feral and destructive animals.
It's even worse than normal these days, say the shelter managers, because economic hard times make pets too expensive for families on a shrinking budget. We realize some of these people love their pets, tearfully dropping them at a shelter as the best option available to them.
This will sound harsh, but they should have thought about the responsibility they were undertaking by assuming control of a living creature.
Now since the shelters are overflowing and there is no hope of adopting out these animals, they will have to be killed wholesale.
A report Sunday in The News-Press and on news-press.com made clear how serious this crisis is. People wishing to help should check out information on news-press.com on pet adoption.
http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080508/OPINION/805080330/1015
Dogfighting indecent
The defense has been offered that dogfighting has a long tradition and has survived as part of the culture of certain groups.
That might carry weight in societies where animal fighting is legal and open. But dogfighting has been illegal in most of the U.S. for a century or more. Its practice is part of a culture of lawlessness and animal abuse, as witness the brutal execution by hanging and electrocution of sub-performing dogs in the organization associated with former NFL quarterback Michael Vick. Gambling and drugs are often part of the scene, along with gangs.
That's the "culture" we're talking about here, a criminal culture that equates manhood with brutality.
Dogfighting is illegal, regularly prosecuted and generally despised.
Our plea here is for those among whom dogfighters live not to condone their sport. The impromptu Bonita Springs dogfight was the center of the gleeful attention of a small crowd of spectators. All of those people come from households where children could be endangered by dogs made vicious by fighting. This was not organized dogfighting with gambling and the rest of it; it was spontaneous expression of the lousy values of some people in that community.
Where are the decent people in that neighborhood? Where is their outrage?
Children should not grow up thinking this is what real men do for amusement.
Horse racing worth saving
With dogfighting in mind, it's easy to see that thoroughbred horse racing, for all its problems, for all the inevitability of injuries and deaths, is not animal cruelty.
It may need reform, and may be under heavy pressure to change after the very public death of Eight Belles after she collapsed with two broken legs at the Kentucky Derby Saturday.
Horse breeders and racers have too much invested in the long life and health of their animals to deliberately harm them. Horse racing has always produced deaths and will, like car racing, where the fatalities are all human. The only way to eliminate risk is to eliminate excitement.
But some experienced critics - not the fringe animal-rights kooks - say that 3-year-olds with still-undeveloped bones and joints are too young to run in races like the Derby, and are being pushed to do so for the money. A well-known horse surgeon, Dr. Wayne McIlwraith of Colorado State University, said these huge horses put such force on their tiny legs racing that injuries are devastating, requiring that they be killed.
There are other issues: Are synthetic tracks safer, are steroids and other medications over-used, could the animals be bred for more ankle strength? But any reform should preserve racing, not euthanize it.
Pet owners heedless
Before we condemn horse racing we had better take a long look at the way many ordinary people deal with pet ownership.
It is not a reassuring picture.
Southwest Florida animal shelters are more crowded than usual these days. Even in normal times, people thoughtlessly acquire, then abandon dogs, cats and other creatures they finally realize they can't care for, or simply don't want to. In the meantime they have failed to have them spayed or neutered, which means in the case of animals left in the woods, their negligence will echo down through generations of feral and destructive animals.
It's even worse than normal these days, say the shelter managers, because economic hard times make pets too expensive for families on a shrinking budget. We realize some of these people love their pets, tearfully dropping them at a shelter as the best option available to them.
This will sound harsh, but they should have thought about the responsibility they were undertaking by assuming control of a living creature.
Now since the shelters are overflowing and there is no hope of adopting out these animals, they will have to be killed wholesale.
A report Sunday in The News-Press and on news-press.com made clear how serious this crisis is. People wishing to help should check out information on news-press.com on pet adoption.
http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080508/OPINION/805080330/1015