Philip Hamm
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Jan 23, 1999
- Messages
- 6,874
What a load of bull!
During the scene where he fed it a maggot, the ASPCA objected on the grounds that it was cruel to the maggot.. What a joke.
The analogy of treating animals the way we would want super powerful aliens to treat us is flawed. Animals do not have the same, if any, understanding of free will, intellectual freedom, etc like humans do. They don't have careers and political objectives. They basically operate on survival and breeding instinct.I don't believe that my questions and comments (none of which were analogies, BTW), are flawed. I understand that it may difficult to see the logic, but I believe that is because our thinking is so human-centric.
Consider an intelligent race of beings that thinks on a level completely beyond anything our silly mammalian brains are even capable of imagining. What if, by comparison, our "intelligence", politics, social customs, careers--everything we know--are as meaningless and primitive to them as are a cockroach's instincts to us? Our planet is so very tiny, and yet the Universe is massive beyond our reason. In the grand scheme of things, we may be far closer to the cockroach than we think. I don't want to be sprayed with posion or smashed just because I'm stupid. So yes, if I see a roach in my house I catch the little sucker and put him the garden. I find that it always feels better to spare a life than to take one.
For those smiling at the unintended reference, I held these beliefs long before I saw MiB.
I apologize for straying so far from the original subject of this thread.
Yeah, but would you move your family into the super-being's home & start breeding out of control, eating your host's food, spreading disease, & crapping all over the place? That's what bugs do, which is why the ones I find inside don't live long. I've tried asking them to leave, but they don't seem to understand.Well, you really seemed to have missed my point, but I'll humor you. The cockroach was on earth long before humans. What you are saying is that we have the right to do what we want to them since we are more intelligent, even though they were here first. What if the aforementioned race of beings decide to make Earth their home, and from their point of view we are nothing more than primitive, disgusting disease-spreading animals? By your logic, we all deserve to die for invading their home (which, of course, they rightfully can take from us by virtue of their intelligence).
Animal interaction was monitored by theAmerican Humane Association with on set supervision by the Toronto Humane Society. No animal was harmed in the making of this film. Human interaction was monitored by the Inter Planetary Psychiatric Association. The body count was high, the casualties are heavy.
To each his own--but cruelty to nonhumans is never cool.light and flimsy at best, but so true, in a Gil Scott Heron sort of delivery
What about termites? Hard to get them to move.That's a really good question. If my home were invaded by termites (or massive amounts of roaches, or anything else that threatened it, or the people who live in it) I would take whatever action I needed to, including killing the invaders, to protect my home and its occupants. That's survival, and I believe nothing should ever have to apologize for trying to survive. That doesn't stop me from trying to prevent that sort of thing as much as possible.
That's survival.(and That is the unrelenting bottom line.)
Okay all bug lovers AND squashers, would that be one of the off topic POINTs of the day.
If horses eat hay, alfalfa being the primary carrier, infected with even tiny body parts of ‘Blister Beetle’ it is an extremely painful death, the survival rate is low. A famous cutting horse who won the equivalent of the triple crown in cutting and went on to become a million dollar syndicate, almost died 2 months before the Futurity, (his stable mate was not so lucky).
Farmers and ranchers spend time and effort to eradicate this danger.
There are unforgiving inflexible laws governing the food chain which dictate survival of any living thing. It seems to me when humans swing to either extreme whether it is PETRA or Slash & Burn Timber harvesters, is when our world becomes chaotic and dangerous.
We ignore nature’s laws (if you will) at our own peril. Cows were never intended to be forced into cannibalism and a terrible consequence was paid for that greed. Lions where never intended to eat anything other their staple diet and no amount of human politicking will convince them to Lay down with the Lamb. (Maybe a gazelle now and then).
There is order to this universe no matter how distasteful some of it might be.
You couldn’t let mice run merrily around your property if you knew they carried the black plague.
Nature is cruel and beautiful, I stop my cat from eating a what-ever if I’m available, and I’d stop a dog from eating my cat but…
I was told a woman jumped out and chased a hawk off a field rabbit it had just killed. The rabbit was dead and she knew it but she just couldn’t stand the food chain played out before her eyes, so she cried and buried the rabbit so the Hawk would not desecrate its corpse. I guess it did not occur to her when she interfered in that situation, what a waste for the hawk, who’s ratio of hunting success’s can be as slim as a Cheetahs kill rate. And I’m sure the woman would have cried just as hard over the bodies of precious fluffy chicks when they died of starvation after a hard hunting season.
I save baby birds all the time, (from domestic cats who won’t starve to death without them) but I won’t interfere when an omnivorous Crow takes one to feed its own young. Humans need to tread as light as possible living and let live, each within our own circles of basic survival boundaries.
Since some of you don't participate, the rest of us have to eat twice as many animals to keep the natural balance of thingsI agree. I tend not to eat poor innocent plants to make up for those who eat only that.
I didn't know people felt like this regarding insects, I sure hope some of you guys don't get Fear Factor canceled, thats one of my favorite shows.
PS (aka on topic), horse flipping is no longer allowed in movies, as explained and properly done in Braveheart.