Last week’s editorial awful
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Contributed
Published: May 8, 2008
To the editor,
In all your editorializing (Our Opinion: Considering Donkey Basketball, May 1, 2008) you wrote just one line of any substance: “It becomes a question of where we stand on the role of animals in our society.” Since you control what is reported, what makes the front page, how many photos are printed to cover any given event, what letters get printed in the Letters column and what opinion appears as the newspaper’s “official” last word on any subject, I would say you’ve got this thing pretty well wrapped up! It is not difficult to decipher where you stand on the question of how animals are treated in our society. Your cavalier statements regarding donkey basketball’s not being “much different than (sic) the circus” and “the donkeys didn’t seem to be mistreated” and “we breed dogs because we love animals” clearly expose your ignorance of the horrors circus animals face during the training and, for the rest of their lives, backstage in arenas and circus tents all over the world.
An ounce of insight would have brought home to you that people in the business of exploiting animals (yes, donkeys do not play basketball willingly and joyfully) for their own financial gain have long been aware that the public is “put off” by animals that appear starved, beaten or mistreated in any way.
I am not implying that these donkeys were treated poorly; however, if they were, you and the rest of the attendees would not have been aware of it.
Additionally, I have been involved in animal rescue for over 30 years and I have never, in all that time, met a dog breeder whose primary reason for bringing more puppies into this world was the result of a love of animals. Breeders breed to make money. The end result of this irresponsible behavior is shelters filled to overflowing with unwanted puppies and adult dogs and (do you find it surprising?) 25 percent of shelter dogs are purebreds! Were you aware that millions (yes, millions) of dogs and puppies are euthanized each year in shelters in this country alone? Could there be a better reason not to bring more canines into the world? Love of animals, indeed!
Your editorial was uninformed and biased. Beneath most animal “sports” and events is a dark underworld of which most people are unaware. The suffering and mistreatment of animals is a subject our society would rather avoid, mainly, I suspect, because society’s own pleasure and entertainment are involved.
Who among us would go to a circus if we saw the elephant trainer using a sharp hook or electric prod to force the unfortunate animal to perform? We don’t want to know, so we close our eyes and our minds to the ugly reality of abuse. Animal exploitation is just one inch away from animal abuse.
Your “journalistic responsibility” was to report on an event which was of interest to your readership. It did not include making uninformed judgments about whether or not “something inappropriate was going on” because, quite frankly, you are not qualified to be the judge of that.
The editorial column is not a billboard for your anger, happiness, frustrations or any other of your personal emotions. Ideally, it is a column where fact and observance merge to present a clearer picture of any “happening” in this county. Instead of using your editorial license to inform and educate your reading public, you have jumped into the fray and allowed your biases to explode all over your editorial column.
So, I guess you know where I stand on the role of animals in our society. They are not for our exploitation, to treat inhumanely, to allow to suffer, to give us pleasure without the responsibility of proper care, to neglect or even to eat! Yes, Mr. Editor, I am a vegetarian which, according to you, makes me eligible to say that exploitation of animals is wrong. A sensitive person has only to look at the death of Eight Belles at the Derby this week (and have you forgotten Barbaro’s heartbreaking death in 2006?) to process the fact that these poor creatures were sacrificed for nothing more than the public’s need to be entertained. Whether it’s horse racing, alligator wrestling, bull riding, dog races, cockfighting, bullfighting or donkey basketball, it’s all animal exploitation if the animal didn’t participate by choice.
Carole D. Santone
Companion Animal Rescue Effort
Orange
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Reader Reactions
Posted by ( poppinfresh ) on May 13, 2008 at 8:21 am
SANCTIMONIOUS SELF-RIGHTEOUS POPPYCOCK!
I must respond to last week’s letter regarding your editorial about the donkey basketball game, in which Ms. Santone concluded with the words, “it’s all animal exploitation if the animal didn’t participate by choice.”
Sanctimonious, self-righteous poppycock!
We have been exploiting animals ever since we won the race out of the primordial ooze. Like it or not, Madam, we are the rulers of this planet mainly because we have large brains and opposable thumbs. We have “exploited” animals for food, shelter, clothing, companionship and sport for millennia. If porpoises or panda bears were the dominant species on earth, trust me, they would be exploiting us.
In fact, animals exploit each other. Ants have been observed to “exploit” lesser insect species by keeping them as livestock. Foxes eat mice, big fish eat little fish, and red tail hawks eat song birds. Imagine my horror when I saw a barn swallow “exploit” a mosquito the other day. Dripping sarcasm aside, it is still a dog eat dog world out there.
You haughtily announce to us that you are a vegetarian, as if that absolves you from the guilt trip you’re trying to lay on the rest of us. I sure hope you are a strict vegan, because if so much as an egg, a sip of milk or a pat of butter have passed through your lips, you have “exploited” an animal. In fact if your veggies were grown with the benefits of bone meal, fish meal, turkey litter or cow manure, you have “exploited” an animal. And if your shoes are made of leather, you have “exploited” an animal.
I don’t know if you are a pet owner or not; but if you are, you are exploiting your four legged, finned, scaled and feathered companions for their loyalty, affection and yes, entertainment. You’re not just exploiting them, you’re bribing them for it.
Exploitation of animals: Service animals, search and rescue dogs, companion and therapy animals, all shamelessly exploited. And they didn’t have a “choice” in any of it.
You are making a classic error here; it is called anthropomorphism, a ten dollar word that means assigning human attributes to non-human entities. Other than deciding whether to flee or fight, pounce or wait, animals do not make “choices.” And they should not.
Given a choice, horses and cows would have us tear down the fences so they could eat themselves to death in a neighboring clover field. The dogs and cats in the Animal Shelter would have us open the doors so they could breed out of control and maraud through the countryside, preying on wildlife and then on each other.
In a previous paragraph, I mentioned that, like it or not, we are the rulers of the planet. We are also its stewards, and not just of the land and water, but of the animal world as well. Yes we selectively breed animals to run fast, jump high, fly far, pursue game, or grow tasty, tender and fat. And no, not every dog breeder is in it for the money; many are in it to preserve bloodlines, improve the standard, and admire the beauty and grace of an animal doing its job. If you want to be anthropomorphic about it, a greyhound wants to run.
I note with interest that you are a part of the Companion Animal Rescue Effort. I know nothing about this group; the title sounds noble and well-intentioned enough. I just hope that you haven’t gone off the deep end on the animal welfare issue. The Norfolk-based animal rights group People for The Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is riding a favorable publicity wave in the wake of the heinous Michael Vick dog-fighting scandal. But beware; this fringe group has an ulterior motive that includes giving animals the horrifying choices mentioned above, including a ban on hunting with dogs. Never mind that given a choice, a hound is happiest chasing its quarry.
Perhaps your efforts would be better served promoting the following: responsible pet ownership, public or private funding to spay and neuter, enforcement of existing laws against animal neglect and cruelty, the humane treatment (up through the slaughter process) of all animals destined for the table, sanitary conditions and pain-free procedures in necessary medical research. In light of all these pressing issues, is the question whether a donkey wants to play basketball or not really important?