Danny Westneat | Thanks to PETA, I'm a bad, fish-killing dad | Seattle Times Newspaper
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/dannywestneat/2016265787_danny21.html
If PETA comes to town, but nobody gets naked, does their protest make a sound?
"It's true I have a hard time explaining to my 11-year-old pacifist daughter why clubbing fish to death with my brother counts as family bonding, but we would never consider doing the same with, say, sea lions. Or even other animals we eat routinely, such as pigs or cows. PETA's point about fish is: What's the difference?
"I guess my answer is that my animal-treatment ethics are situational. Fishing and hunting are fine, probably because that's how I was raised. It'd also be hypocritical for me to get all worked up about the killing of animals that I love to eat.
"But it's not hard to imagine this culture shifting. You can sure feel it sliding in PETA's direction on some of its other longtime causes. Such as: Why in the world do we still have circuses and zoos?"
We have them because in many cases, they're the last refuges for animals which are otherwise highly endangered or extinct in the wild. Think of them as live-animal museums that conserve what can be conserved in no other way. PETA wants to abolish them -- why? To make sure to kill off those species, too.
I'm waiting for the stupid bastards to try to make bacteria and viruses go extinct. If they were to succeed, of course, everything would go extinct, as bacteria are the base of all food webs, and viral pathogens provide the ultimate check on population sizes, keeping species from eating themselves and everyone else out of house and home. But hey, PETA, what are a few quibbles like that to those who want to turn the world into a silent, moveless, lifeless utopia?
PS: I love fishing! Hey, if the bacteria are going to eat me when I die, then it's okay for me to fish. Circle of Life and all that.
If PETA comes to town, but nobody gets naked, does their protest make a sound?
"It's true I have a hard time explaining to my 11-year-old pacifist daughter why clubbing fish to death with my brother counts as family bonding, but we would never consider doing the same with, say, sea lions. Or even other animals we eat routinely, such as pigs or cows. PETA's point about fish is: What's the difference?
"I guess my answer is that my animal-treatment ethics are situational. Fishing and hunting are fine, probably because that's how I was raised. It'd also be hypocritical for me to get all worked up about the killing of animals that I love to eat.
"But it's not hard to imagine this culture shifting. You can sure feel it sliding in PETA's direction on some of its other longtime causes. Such as: Why in the world do we still have circuses and zoos?"
We have them because in many cases, they're the last refuges for animals which are otherwise highly endangered or extinct in the wild. Think of them as live-animal museums that conserve what can be conserved in no other way. PETA wants to abolish them -- why? To make sure to kill off those species, too.
I'm waiting for the stupid bastards to try to make bacteria and viruses go extinct. If they were to succeed, of course, everything would go extinct, as bacteria are the base of all food webs, and viral pathogens provide the ultimate check on population sizes, keeping species from eating themselves and everyone else out of house and home. But hey, PETA, what are a few quibbles like that to those who want to turn the world into a silent, moveless, lifeless utopia?
PS: I love fishing! Hey, if the bacteria are going to eat me when I die, then it's okay for me to fish. Circle of Life and all that.