Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!hoptoad!cpsc6a!rtech!mtxinu!unisoft!gethen!farren From: farren@gethen.UUCP Newsgroups: alt.flame Subject: Re: Imported woman's Fox Fur Coats Message-ID: <357@gethen.UUCP> Date: Wed, 18-Nov-87 04:19:29 EST Article-I.D.: gethen.357 Posted: Wed Nov 18 04:19:29 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 21-Nov-87 16:24:05 EST References: <132@blic.BLI.COM> <4830@elroy.Jpl.Nasa.Gov> <1841@chinet.UUCP> Reply-To: farren@gethen.UUCP (Michael J. Farren) Organization: Sci-Fido - Unix in Oakland Lines: 51 Keywords: Fox Coats In article <1841@chinet.UUCP> rhonda@chinet.UUCP (Rhonda Scribner) writes: >The hypocrisy of these "friends of animals" is often very amusing. They often >wear leather shoes, they eat meat, they keep animals as pets (denying them >the right to live free lives on their own), and THEN scream about other >people and the horrible things THEY do to animals. Sheesh! One at a time: "wear leather shoes": Yes, although my current ones are canvas. The leather they are made of probably came from cattle which were slaughtered to provide food (see "eat meat", below). As such, they represent efficient and maximal use of the products that animal died to provide. Fox furs, on the other hand, were likely cut from the body of an animal which was then discarded, possibly to be eaten by scavengers, but more likely to become food for flies. "eat meat": Yes. The human animal evolved as an omnivorous one, and I have never seen a reason not to eat meat. The thing that I ask is that if an animal (or a plant!) is going to die for my benefit, then it should be treated with the respect due its sacrifice, before, during, and after its death. Sadly, many are not, and I object to those practices as much as I do the sales of fur coats. "keep animals as pets": Yes. My cat would much rather be in my house, being fed regularly, and having a lifespan some five times longer than the average cat living in the wild, I'm sure. I am denying her the right to live a free life on her own, it's true, but that free life, in reality, means one which will be short, painful, and a continual struggle. Do you seriously contend that keeping this from happening to my cat constitutes cruelty to the animal? "scream about other people and the horrible things THEY do to animals": You bet your ass. I scream about the tortured and mutilated chickens in the poultry factories. I scream about the cruel treatment meted out to calves fated to become veal. I scream about the casual cruelties idiot pet owners inflict on their pets. I scream about any cases I find out about where animals are used, like any other object, and then tossed aside. And I definitely am going to scream about animals who are killed only for their skins, and only so some rich bitch can wear something fashionable. Those animals died for NOTHING, and all of us are diminished by their deaths; do you expect me to sit quietly and say "Well, that's all right, though. Rhonda NEEDS her fur coat"? >Not amused. Nor sensitive. Nor reasoning. -- ---------------- Michael J. Farren "... if the church put in half the time on covetousness unisoft!gethen!farren that it does on lust, this would be a better world ..." gethen!farren@lll-winken.arpa Garrison Keillor, "Lake Wobegon Days"