Animal cruelty...

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There's been another case of media proportions of an act of the deaded animal cruelty in the UK...

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/swinging-cat-attacker-hands-himself-in-to-police.html

Is it just me or do uninvolved people get a little too worked up about this stuff... we all have animal rights etc rammed down our throats by groups like PETA every day... but is this just a term used to protect the cute and fluffy?

Animals aren't just what we see abused on TV, the animal kingdom is alot bigger, the 'kingdom animalia' comprises any "multi cellular organism that has a well-defined shape and usually limited growth, can move voluntarily, actively acquire food and digest it internally, and havs sensory and nervous systems that allow them to respond rapidly to stimuli".

This diverse definition accepts both vertibrates and invertibrates into the animal kingdom. To most.... for some reason, they only apply animal rights to mammals and some fish, they forget that reptiles, amphibians, arthopods, molluscs, worms and sponges fall into the category of being animals.

Arthopods, of course, are the largest family of animals on the planet, with 1,170,000 known species they account for over 80% of the animal kingdom, people seem to forget that every time they swat a fly or step on a beetle, they are killing an animal.

So, while I favour animal cruelty laws to protect animals, I would like these especially vocal idiots to get off their band wagon because everyone has killed an animal.

 

While I somewhat agree with you, I don't think insects and the like have the same capacity for suffering and happiness as the larger, more complex organisms. I think we resonate more with the suffering of those animals because it's clear to us that they are indeed suffering and it is because of our own cruelty. I personally think that the concept of animal rights should go beyond just abuse and look at the more passive forms of suffering we cause to the animal world, like mass extinction due to our massive pollution and land usage. I agree that the especially vocal animal rights activists can be hypocritical, but I agree with their basic sentiment.

That being said, I can totally understand someone being vocally outraged about this. Tormenting a creature who is not only defenseless but relies on you for it's well being is one of the highest forms of cruelty.

 

just because an organism is larger doesnt mean its more complex, the human race has a very limted understanding of insects, in my opinion they show alot of the qualities of intelligent life (ever chased a spider?), they often defy the rules of science (the laws of physics deny that a bumble bee can fly), I am somewhat envious of insect life, in the physical form alot of these creatures are flawless, imagine if they were the same size as us?

I used the link above to highlight my distaste of the buzz word which has been created in 'animal cruelty' the media flay it alive, the original article for the incident was littered with emotive language "this shocking footage" etc... instead of being to the point and not feeding the mob, that these writers know will form for a good witch hunt.

 

No, i've never chased a spider- i'm terrified of them. I may be wrong about this, but i've always thought that insects didn't have the same capacity for pain or emotions as other organisms like mammals and such, though they do of course show amazing actions you would never think they were capable of (like ants sacrificing themselves to distract predators and forming living rafts during floods). I can understand not liking the gut reaction inducing language, but all in all I wouldn't feel bad for this person one bit if he was subjected to a witch hunt, he certainty deserves it.

Blackthorne- I completely agree. People pay more attention to stories like this than to large-scale tragedies that affect countless humans.

 

lots of people think this, but science has yet to properly document the mental attributes of insects, I think, because they are so small lots of people find it easy to forget (or ignore) that they are living creatures which do show clear evidence of mental patterns displayed by mammals, birds and fish.

I cant say I agree with this, I think alot of people kill insects because they are 'icky' my wife for example, if she finds a bug, demands its death - which leads to arguments between us when I just want to put it outside.

Ive gone on a tangent away from my original purpose for this thread though, my point wasnt to discuss the torture of insects, it was to discuss people who take such a millitant attitude towards animal cruelty, the law can deal with animal cruelty, but people for some reason get incited to make very passionate and brutal opinions about the perpertrator - like they have some real connection to that animal, yes its sad when people hurt animals. I have a simple question for these people: "is it your cat?"... "no?".. "then shut the hell up and let the police deal with it."

 

LMAO! Shocking footage ... what a riot. Kids I knew used to this to their own pets.

For the record:

- Personally I didn't think Vick should have gotten jail time for dog fighting.
- I don't care how they kill the food I'm going to eat (as long as it's sanitary).
- We should not spend additional money "saving" strays and wounded wildlife.
- I am not concerned at all with finding "humane" ways to eliminate pests.

 

LOL, I know what you mean.

By the way, I've read that for some things (such as certain spiders), putting them outside is basically a death sentence, because their habitat is inside your house (which is probably why you found them there in the first place).

 

Yes they do, lots of these insects like moist humid environments, I dont just put them outside they go in the shed... my wife doesnt step foot in there.

 

As a child I always enjoyed pulling the legs of spiders, but what I took a real delight in was pulling the legs of puppies and kittens.

Sarcastic comments aside, I certainly hope you're not comparing pulling the legs of spiders with swinging a cat by it's tail. I can imagine the cat swinger has a sadistic mind, but I think mutilating a spider is less severe. Probably because of the awww-factor a cat has and the eeek-factor a spider has (which I guess is the same distinction animal lovers make according to Shoshino).

And really everybody makes that distinction. People go "awww" when they see a puppy, but their brain doesn't create any chemical reaction for affection when the see a baby snake. They wouldn't mind taking care of a spider that sits at the front door if the misses asks them to, but they wouldn't kill a kitten that annoys the misses by hanging around the house, not matter how much the misses asks.

I don't know why, maybe it's an evolutionary thing where we hold insects and reptiles in a lesser regard. There certainly is little logic to it. And I'm not less of a hypocrite myself, I would kill a insect in an instant, but wouldn't dream of kill another mammal (maybe I would have less trouble with stomping a mouse than a cat... like I said, very little logic). Likewise, I don't think I could kill a cow, but I thoroughly enjoy a dead one on my hamburger.

Ok, lastly: this is somewhat of an urban myth. There was a scientist somewhere, a long time ago (I really don't know the details of it, I'm sure you can find it somewhere if you're interested), who claimed that bumblebees wouldn't be able to fly. Either he had a lack of knowledge about aerodynamics, or the field was just not as advanced at the time, but scientist later proofed that he was wrong and showed (not really surprisingly, based on visual observances ), that bumblebees can actually fly.

 

I thought the common understanding was that we have consideration for creatures in direct proportion to how closely they resemble us. Hence mammals (four legs, two eyes, similar size, etc.) will usually get the nod while insects (six legs, antennae, an exoskeleton, etc.) won't.

 

How did they get into your house in the first place then? Even if you want to make an argument that they have a breeding population inside your house (which in itself would be a little scary), they have to initially get in there. I also think that most spiders live outside simply because I see an uptick in their appearance in my house in October and November - when it's getting cold out there so they come inside. It goes without saying that if you find a spider in your house in the winter that putting it outside would kill it.

I don't think anyone's doing that. Everyone know swinging a cat by its tail is a whole lot more fun.

That's exactly the way I heard it as well. In fact, it was unknown at the time how a bumblebee - or any insect for that matter - could even hover. The initial statement that a bumblebee flying defied physics was made before the technological breakthrough of the helicopter.

 

Oh it was, and in 1996 they put together some actual evidence of how a bee can fly, however in 2001 that was disproven
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1337647/Bumblebee-grounded-again-by-science.html

 

Should there be an analysis of hive based telekinesis?

 

I'm no expert but I'll try to reiterate what I read (this from some noted biologist/fan of spiders/nerd type guy) ... they do indeed have breeding populations inside your house, likely for many many spider generations. (In my house, for example, there is a pale yellow species of spider living there that has been there at least as long as I have. Thankfully they're rather benign and don't ever seem to do anything but lurk around on walls.)

How did they get there in the first place? Spider pioneers? I suppose like anything else they moved in one day, maybe hitching a ride from your neighbor's house or the warehouse at work to your place. Or maybe they just walked over from next door in search of greener pastures.

This isn't true for every living creature inside your house, but it is for many with indigenous populations. You might be suprised what all's living in there with you.

 

If I saw them in my house, i'd probably go screaming into the night.

 

Yes of course I know HOW they get into your house... it's not like I've never seen a spider inside. I'm just pointing out that since I tend to see more of them in the house when the weather turns colder, that it stands to reason there's a significant portion of them outside that come inside.

I've killed some big-ass spiders in my day, but I have to say that I've never had the displeasure of seeing any of those 100mm across behemoths anywhere in my house.