TW: GOP Rep. Steve King Defends Dog Fighting
If you believe that the United States should legalize dogfighting because we allow humans to fight, fear not. You’ve got an ally in the United States Congress.
During a tele-townhall late last week, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) fielded a question about his opposition to animal rights and recently introduced legislation that would undermine local standards preventing animal torture. “It’s wrong to rate animals above human beings,” he told the questioner. To make his point, King argued that “there’s something wrong” for society to make it a “federal crime to watch animals fight” but “it’s not a federal crime to induce somebody to watch people fighting.”
KING: "When the legislation that passed in the farm bill that says that it’s a federal crime to watch animals fight or to induce someone else to watch an animal fight but it’s not a federal crime to induce somebody to watch people fighting, there’s something wrong with the priorities of people that think like that."
Click to viewKing did not say whether it was also hypocritical that society allows people to get married yet not animals.
Of course, there is a very good reason we ban dogfighting and other similar forms of cruelty: animals don’t have a choice in the matter. Manny Pacquiao chooses to step into the ring. Michael Vick’s dogs did not. Similarly, when a human boxer loses a fight, he is not ritually executed after the fight. The same is not always true in dogfighting.
Unfortunately, King is a longtime advocate for legalizing dogfighting, cockfighting, and other forms of animal torture. Most recently, he fought legislation that would make it illegal to bring a child to an animal fight. He has also set aside his love for states’ rights in order to forbid localities from enacting anti-animal torture standards.
By Scott Keyes on Jul 31, 2012 at 2:50 pm
Source: Think Progress.org
A few days later, after receiving complaints, he tries to backpedal:
What They’re Saying: Steve King is pro-dog fighting, anti-immigration
In the last few days, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, vice-chairman of the House Subcommittee on Immigration, shared his views on dog-fighting and foreigners.
As Think Progress reported, King’s strange canine discussion during a tele-town hall meeting the week before.
“When the legislation that passed in the farm bill that says that it’s a federal crime to watch animals fight or to induce someone else to watch an animal fight but it’s not a federal crime to induce somebody to watch people fighting, there’s something wrong with the priorities of people that think like that,” King said.
After receiving several complaints from animal rights groups, King tried to explain himself:
"What I’ve said is we need to respect humans more than we do animals. Whenever we start to elevate animals above humans, we’ve crossed a moral line. For example, when there’s a sexual predator out there, who has impregnated a young girl, say a 13-year-old girl - and it happens in America more times than you or I would like to think - that sexual predator can take that girl off the playground of a middle school, and haul her across a state line, and force her to get an abortion to eradicate the evidence of his crime, and bring her back and drop her off at the swing set. And that’s not against the law in the United States… We need to respect and revere human life first, and then animal life second. That is my stand and it’s a moral stand. It’s certainly not a stand in favor of animal fighting, and there is no record that would say that either.
Now, I have broken up some dog fights, being around the dogs that we have, and I’ve got a few little marks on me that come from that…"
Later, King discussed American history in support of a bill that would make English America’s official language: “One of the great things about America is we’ve been unified by a common language, ” he told reporters during a press conference in Washington. “That common language, of course, is English. Our language is getting subdivided by some forces of the federal government. It is time to speak with a common voice.” He later added, “The argument that diversity is our strength has really never been backed up by logic. It’s unity is where our strength is. Our Founding Fathers understood that. Modern-day multiculturalists are defying that.”
Apart from this bill, King has several more ideas to solve the immigration mess on his website. Here is, perhaps, the most intriguing one:
"I have seen the fences being built on the border by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol. I have watched illegal immigrants scale these fences and easily move between the United States and Mexico. To address this, I have designed a concrete border wall proposal. I have 35 years of experience in the earth-moving, drainage and concrete construction business, which gives me the background to design an effective wall. My concrete wall would function as both a human and vehicle barrier, inspired by the success of the concrete wall in Israel. My design is cost efficient, easy to construct and impenetrable. This design would funnel illegal traffic to our ports of entry, where it can be reasonably controlled by our nation’s customs and border patrol agents."
By Santiago Wills, Friday, Aug 3, 2012 05:58 AM MDT
Source: Salon.com