Puppy shoots man (1 Viewer)

[Kevin M]

Adam, they fully understand what your point is, it's just that whenever you say the word Puppy & Gun in a sentence you will get rather angered reactions.

It is basically a Strong victimizing the Weak reaction and when the Weak actually strike back people tend to cheer.
We understand the ironic nature of us condemning cruelty by in turn being rather callous to this man's injuries but what can we say....we're only human.

Robert Kline used to mention this odd aspect of human nature during his stand up routine back in the early 80's on HBO, (I'm paraphrasing from memory)

"People's value systems are messed up these days, it's popular to blame the News for "desensitizing" us but only in regards to other people....for example, last fall the news showed that three men were decapitated in Uganda for asking for better living conditions & nobody batted an eye here, but on the same program they had a story of how a Cougar at the Denver Zoo was shot at with a pellet-gun and everyone was screaming for the lives of the dumb kids who did it......cutting mens heads off, no reaction...shooting a cougar in the ass with a pellet, OOOHHHH THE HORROR! THE HORROR! WHAT'S THIS WORLD COMING TO? EXECUTE THEM KIDS! THEIR EVIL...EIIIVILLL! Now I love animals as much as the next guy but what I believe it is is that people tend to think that men are capable of evil but animals are innocent..yeah sure unless you get attacked by one and then all of a sudden KILL THE FUCKING THING!! IT'S EATING MY LEG FOR CHRIST'S SAKE!!I DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT MY GREENPEACE MEMBERSHIP, SHOOT THE FUCKER IN THE HEAD!!IT'S EVIL I TELL YOU!!!!
As I said though, I love animals as much as anyone but don't you think that says something about our values and what TV has done to them......but not cable TV of course..a bastion of wholesome morals to say the least.

Now of course the puppies weren't eating anyones leg but he was right all those years ago in saying that some people do tend to identify with animals getting killed more so then humans getting killed, what that says about these people.....I don't know, maybe it is an effect of city life, most don't go to farms and see how those wonderful slices of bacon are put in the nice clean packages...something dies rather horribly in the process and for some of these country people who do this every day what this man did isn't all that unusual from their perspective, he was getting rid of an animal problem.....now not all country people feel this way of course but we should remember that not everyone anthropomorphizes pets the way we tend to, to them it is an animal & not much more (say, for an example, some Vietnamese or Korean folks who might eat the dog and think nothing of it).

From my perspective he is a moron who was too lazy to drive them up to a shelter but not everyone thinks of it that way.

Edit & re-edit because perspective and prospective are..er..different.

 

[Malcolm R]

The difference is that human beings supposedly have the capacity for reasoning and making distinctions between proper and improper actions. "Evil" has to be pre-meditated and planned for maximum effect/injury, different courses of action chosen to maximize cruelty and anguish.

Animal behavior is seen as merely instinctual. They don't think, they just react to various stimuli depending on what their evolutionary processes have dictated. So if they attack, it is because they think they're being threatened in some way and have to defend themselves or their offspring, not because they're evil. Or in some cases, they may attack because of hunger. Either way, their only agenda is self-preservation.

 

[Kevin M]

Tell Robert Kline, Malcolm, I was just quoting him.

But if this is true then how can we say that this man absolutely wasn't going on his "instincts", in other words the way he may have been raised? I know my uncle back in the seventies used to throw bags of puppies in the canal, I thought it was mean but from his prospective he was just getting rid of a problem and that is how he was raised by his father in the country...then again so was my Dad and he felt exactly the opposite on the matter, that's why he got out of the bootheal (MO).

 

[Malcolm R]

Because humans are supposed to be able to rise above instincts and determine a proper course of action through reasoning, and application of concepts such as morality and propriety. This involves brain function beyond simple mimicry and imitation.

If humans never aspired to move beyond the processes, traditions, and behaviors of their forebears, we'd all still be living in caves and hunting food with crude spears.

Some decide to move forward, some decide to live in arrested development.

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

Anyone who believes this hasn't been around many animals, most of which are very intelligent, and can reason quite well. Sure, their primary motivation is survival, but that does not make them unintelligent. If humans are supposed to be so intelligent, why is it that we are overpopulating our planet and destroying our environment in the process? I don't buy the argument that hunting is necessary, that is simply a convenient excuse. Nature is quite good at maintainaing a balance without our participation. Any "problem" with animal populations around the world invariably has human interference as a major contributing factor. There is only one species on this planet that should be culled.

It is poetic justice that this man was shot as a result of his actions. He has no one to blame but himself.

 

[Kevin M]

It's all in your perspective, take pig farmers, they slaughter these animals for food and I don't hear anyone in this thread decrying this practice however anyone who has spent any time with a pig knows that they are remarkably smart animals at least equal in learning capability to a dog.
Dogs are pets, pigs are meat.
Unless you want to become a vegan you must notice there is a slight hypocritical discrepancy in our rational of what makes for food and what makes for companionship because I have personally seen potbelly pigs that are every bit as charming and faithful to a family as any dog.
Yet I still eat bacon & porkchops and MMMMMM they taste good, it's bizarre. When I was 16 I really began thinking about these matters and I decided to go down to my uncles farm to really experience the truth of what it is really about, to kill something for food, and I helped slaughter pigs, chickens and a cow. It was grim work for a city boy but I felt I should do it and while the people down there thought it was funny they understood why I was doing it, to them it is simply the way of life but for someone who isn't exposed to the reality of the prosess it may seem barbaric.

I'm not suggesting that killing puppies to avoid the cost of raising them and killing pigs for food is the same thing, I don't personally feel it is, but if the argument is that there are alternatives to this and to not explore these alternatives makes those people Barbaric & "primitive" regardless to what their perspective may be then we might want to take a look at ourselves, we eat other living things for food but there are alternatives to this as well. We don't have to eat meat to survive anymore, yet I'll bet most of the people in this thread eat it on a daily basis even though they don't have to. You were raised to believe that eating it is necessary and that is the way you believe things to be.

That is your perspective on things.

Now I know someone will say that there is a huge difference between eating for survival and cruelty to animals and they would be absolutely right however there has been no proof that this man was torturing these dogs, as far as I understood he was destroying them in a rather quick manner, a bullet to the head, and though the manner may be different and the age group might be quite a bit older than puppies that nonetheless is what happens to animals everyday at shelters....in mass numbers under the name of "population control".


Now obviously I am playing Devil's Advocate here as I don't agree with doing what he did but to simply right him off as deserving his injuries because he is "Barbaric" & "Primitive" all depends IMO on how you look at it, because if you peel back the layers on modern everyday life we are doing things every day that aren't exactly "kind to animals" even though we too have alternatives.

Now I am going to go get a Bacon Bacon Cheeseburger...mmmmmm.

 

[David Williams]

What I believe the gist of this discussion is that what happened constituted karma/divine justice/self-defense, not a call for the crime of animal abuse to be met with the death penalty.

 

[Dave Poehlman]

Just thought I'd revive this controversial thread to say:

CATS WILL NOT BE OUTDONE!!!