4109

She's right, for the wrong reasons

Women's studies professor at Duke, Kathy Rudy says [quoted in Taranto's Best of the Web:

"We need to face the fact that dog fighting is not the only "sport" that abuses animals. Cruelty also occurs in rodeos, horse and dog racing (all of which mistreat animals and often kill them when no longer useful). There are also millions of dogs and cats we put to death in "shelters" across the country because they lack a home, and billions of creatures we torture in factory farms for our food.

She then goes on to say Vick is being wrongfully charged because he's black. Oh, please! Not the race card again. Stop this incessant infantilization of adult black men who ought to know up from down. Michael Vick didn't slaughter his dogs because he was some poor black kid, he was just plain old vanilla evil. However, she's right about the mistreatment of pets. Most pets don't die of disease, old age or the cruelty like Vick demonstrated, but from owner carelessness and stupidity. There are factory farm animals raised for consumption that have a better life than some pets because the owners need to turn a profit. Pet owners don't neuter and train their animals; the animals become community nuisances with barking, biting, defecating and urinating inappropriately and dropping babies; owner sends "bad" animal off to the "shelter," where they are killed--by the millions. Facing facts, as Ms. Rudy suggests, means I give her a C+ for getting some of it right.