Bend’s TV news has recently reported on dogs getting caught in leg-hold traps on public land. Because of that, it was termed a controversial “sport.” Apparently as long as no pets get caught in these barbaric devices, it is considered “sporting.” But what is sporting about the torture and killing of innocent and beautiful wild animals by evil machines left hidden and unattended?
Hunting and fishing are sports; trapping is commercial cruelty condoned by a society that should know better by now. Oh yeah, I forgot: the Bible says that God put all non-human animals on our planet specifically for us to use and abuse as much as we like because we are the only creatures with “souls.” We mutant-mind monkeys have the “God-given right” to cause other creatures extreme suffering because “the Bible told me to.” Why should anyone doubt human-induced climate change, widespread species extinction, or other ecological devastation when such deplorable behavior is justified by mainstream religious and legal dogmas?
Unfortunately, a 1970’s Oregon attempt to make it illegal to torture wild animals with leg-hold traps was defeated, but hasn’t Oregon’s ecological conscience evolved since then? Professional sadists should not be allowed to plant these despicable devices on our public land or anywhere else.
I see little hope that modern civilization will ever reach long-term sustainability on spaceship Earth until the attitudes that permit these pioneer-era contraptions that cause pain, fear, and death are changed. And we all know the likelihood of that happening!
Vote for Rick Santorum (yeah, right). Within a generation or two I expect that our collective bad karma is going to bite us on our collective bad ass.
This article appears in Feb 16-22, 2012.
MAKE LOCAL JOURNALISM HAPPEN
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
Soooo, does your bleeding heart stain your shirts? I’m surprised you could stop hugging the tree long enough to poke the keys on your typewriter. I do love that you got all the typical far left views into this one hitpiece on an age old tradition. Bashed some christians, bashed some anti-global warmers, more BS about “sustainability”. I don’t know about you, but… I’m sustaining just fine, by eating the deer I legaly harvested this year.
“I do love that you got all the typical far left views into this one hitpiece on an age old tradition.”
Not quite all Reason. Author forgot big pharma, banksters, walmart and Bush.
Tough to follow as the line of reasoning is threadbare at best, but I’m feeling adventurous and so I’ll take a stab at a summation. “Traps are evil and because a (tiny, dwindling) segment of the population use them, the human race (or entire planet) is doomed.”
So 2 questions immediately come to mind (well more like 20, but for the sake of brevity); if no god, whence come evil? And how exactly does voting for Rick Santorum play into this?
God is just an idea like Santa Claus, dragons and demons.
Bible is based on the opinions of normal people who wrote this thing.
Evil is up to the individual’s mind.
I can just become evil now and kill someone in cold blood. Is not some stupid dumb Satan crap that made me evil. Is MYSELF. But I won’t do that because I am not evil.
People taking a bible and god seriously should be locked in a mental asylum. Why would we lock someone for believing in Santa Claus and taking it seriously?
Why not god when is just a mythical being like Santa Claus and dragons?
These redneck hicks take god seriously and says animals are here for us.
At the day the stupid bible was written by NORMAL people animal welfare did not exist. People were savages and abused animals.
I saw many deep Christians and they ADVOCATE animal fighting because their stupid god and religions says so.
WHY CAN’T THEY THINK FOR THEMSELVES FOR A MINUTE not a dumb book written by people they’ve never met.
Religions really got to go one by one.
Christianity should be the number one to be BANNED.
Aside abusing animals it did a lot of bad things to humanity such as commiting genocide to the natives and slavers forced Christianity on the blacks.
Trapping is cruel and sadistic. Just because is a tradition it doesn’t mean is right.
Enslaving blacks was part of USA tradition.
Cruel capital punishment such as man-traps, drowning people and torturing people were part of ancient tradition from European countries before they colonized USA and Canada.
But it doesn’t mean is right to do it.
Trappers support ALL kind of bloodsport,
most trappers drown, club, strangle and stomp the animals.
Many abuse animals on their trapline like this dumb deceitful hick Tracy Truman that deserves the gas chamber.
Sooo… I’ll just respond to the assertion that you put forth, I believe, in reply to my first question.
“Evil is up to the individual’s mind.
I can just become evil now and kill someone in cold blood. Is not some stupid dumb Satan crap that made me evil. Is MYSELF. But I won’t do that because I am not evil.”
If this statement is true, which I do not believe it is, and evil is relative, then all we are really doing is comparing tastes or preferences, like flavors of ice cream. You like chocolate and I like vanilla and thus all that is advanced is some personal knowledge about one another, but nothing else.
What I said about good and evil you’ve quoted is true.
Changement of behavior is up to the individual not an idea made up by normal people with their imaginary beings such as god, devil/Satan.
What if I imagined a vile and evil creature and he told me to harm someone?
I will be nut if I do it. I don’t let my imagination dictate me and or control me.
It goes same for Satan, god, demons. They are ideas.
Evil people have no demons in reality, just stupidity and making a BAD choice.