Where Does Your Dog Sleep?

[journey11]

You know, I am not comfortable with the organizations that promote stopping the using of animals for food and research, the groups that say all animals have the same rights as humans. But there has to be some way of teaching people that animals are not to be tortured, used as bait to train fighting dogs, or bred indiscriminately out of neglect or greed.
While writing this I am realizing that my thoughts are a product of my values.
What is wrong with using puppies as bait if we use minnows as bait? We don't want animals tortured, but still it is OK to use them in medical experiments that are probably torturous. It's OK to eat cows but not dogs.

Is it all a matter of extremes?

Bah! I need a vacation from my brain.

My dad told me that when he was young growing up on the farm, it was his job to drown unwanted litters of puppies and kittens in the creek. I always thought that was awful, but now I understand that they didn't have the option of spaying/neutering and there was no animal shelter to take your animals and do the dirty work for you. Just like I have to eat the extra cockerels when I buy straight run chicks, except you can't eat dogs & cats (or wouldn't in this country anyway.) Kinda puts it into perspective.

 

[Beekissed]

My Granny always had barn cats and it seemed like there was always a litter out in the hay shed for us to see and sometimes~if we were lucky~catch a kitten to pet. But she never was overrun with cats...the local toms killed all the male kittens and the females went catting and never returned. Either shot by local neighbors~yes, people shot strays back then~or taken in by same said neighbors or eaten by foxes.

The feral toms had territories that were fiercely defended, resulting in the death of other toms when it came to fights. Thus were the cat populations kept thinned and at normal numbers.

Nowadays they neuter and spay all the cats and those natural life and death events can't take place...a neutered tom, well fed by the local bleeding hearts, will neither hunt a territory nor defend one. The cats are not out hunting at all because everyone feeds them...back in my day no one bought cat food unless they had gotten a kitten from someone and, even then, cat food was rare...usually they were given canned milk and kitchen scraps.

A hunting cat falls prey to other predators..and the numbers are kept under control.

It's only when dunderheads get together and think they can save all the animals from death is when we get huge overloads of animals at shelters. Now a person can only get a cat through the shelters, paying huge sums for neutered and spayed cats that have never seen a mouse in their lives, so are virtually worthless on a homestead.

I've decided just this year to hunt me down some kittens or cats that have been unaltered so I can have a normal, functioning cat population out here for squirrel control. The cats are happy leading a normal cat life, the local foxes and coyotes are happy when they weed out the cat population and we get the benefit of rodent control. The cats that survive are those I'll want to breed for more mousers. Yes...I'll be intentionally breeding cats. Shoot me.

 

[Smart Red]

Thumbs and Sunset, the cats that guard the corn in the wood shop are excellent mousers regardless of how they are fed. Not only that, but being litter mates, they hunt as a pair even though they are both males. Watching them stalk a chipmunk, it is amazing at how well they work together.

Bell has taught herself to hunt since coming to the country at a year old. She's gone from an over-eager chaser to a sly, sneaky predator despite having had her front claws removed before she arrived.

 

[Smart Red]

The old neighbors had an orange tabby when we first moved here. She was prolific -- having 11 and 12 kittens in each litter. The neighbors, however, only cared for the original momma cat. The kittens, once weaned, had to fend for themselves and didn't recognize property lines. It was a very little time before the neighborhood was overrun by orange tabbies and the bird population suffered.

For quite a few years every feral cat I saw seemed to be orange. Yes, in time predation and spreading out seems to have taken most of those original orange tabby cats out of the area.

Now coyotes are expanding their range and I see fewer prey animals around. And, thanks to the cats (I don't have), fewer chipmunks disturbing my gardens.

 

[Beekissed]

The Earth seems to find a balance if we don't interfere too muchly. The coyotes here seem to be in balance, where as some years back there were more and one couldn't find even a box turtle in this area. All the small prey animals were just GONE. Now they are returning, so I expect more predators will return along with.

Good time to have gotten a second dog to help the old one.

 

[thistlebloom]

You know, I am not comfortable with the organizations that promote stopping the using of animals for food and research, the groups that say all animals have the same rights as humans. But there has to be some way of teaching people that animals are not to be tortured, used as bait to train fighting dogs, or bred indiscriminately out of neglect or greed.
While writing this I am realizing that my thoughts are a product of my values.
What is wrong with using puppies as bait if we use minnows as bait? We don't want animals tortured, but still it is OK to use them in medical experiments that are probably torturous. It's OK to eat cows but not dogs.

Is it all a matter of extremes?

Bah! I need a vacation from my brain.

I believe what God has told us in His scriptures. That we are to regard the life of our animals. He expects us to manage wildlife and livestock in a humane manner. People that are torturing animals for the pleasure of violence are going against their conscience, which God the creator has given to every person. People have a choice in their actions and we will all give an account to God for what we did with what He's given us.

So I don't think that people abusing these animals are doing it out of ignorance or not knowing that it's wrong.

We do have a way of teaching them, it's called the law. Those activities are illegal.

 

[Beekissed]

I agree! There's a certain level of stewardship that is expected, though I think most people take that too, too far and start treating animals like humans...even better than humans, actually. Much, much better.

 

[Smart Red]

That's where I start feeling ill, when people treat their pets better than many children are treated. Pets are pets and farm animals are farm animals. To be treated with care, good stewardship, and respect for all living things, but NOT better then the respect and consideration given fellow human beings.

 

[Beekissed]

Me too. When someone says, "They are like my children" I often feel so sorry for their children or any children, when their lives are compared to the life of a dog. What a fallen world in which we live when dog life is held more sacred than human life. When a no kill shelter resides in the same town in which we have abortion clinics, it tells me how far we have fallen.

 

[Smart Red]

Amen to that, Bee!