I don’t fancy myself to be an animal lover. I admit it. Birds make me nervous, big dogs scare the hell out of me and why on earth would anyone keep a Boa constrictor as a pet? And, although I am not an animal lover in the usual sense, I am by no means an animal hater.
Yet, people think I am insensitive and cruel when they ask me about things like my stance on the rodeo. I generally shrug my shoulders in indifference when I think of a man who has nothing better to do with his time than strap himself to a 500 pound, frothy animal for the sole purpose of trying not to get thrown off into oblivion, or stomped into a coma.
This issue of the rodeo is one of many recent issues involving animal rights.
People are often annoyed with protesters, and pedestrians will often not listen to what the protesters have to say. Pedestrians push them off as self-interest serving hippies, with nothing better to do.
I have generally tried to be open-minded about such people, then someone asked me to sign a petition banning the rodeo from Salt Lake City.
Of course a man endangering his life riding an animal that weighs more than a Yugo for our entertainment is stupid. How could anyone argue with that?
I have no doubt that the animals that participate in the rodeo would rather be doing something else.
And perhaps it’s cruel to throw a blanket on the fire of animal-rights activism by saying that we are smarter than animals so we can basically use them for whatever we want.
I found myself in a strange situation when I was asked to choose a side, because I thought, “Who am I to tell thousands of people who enjoy the rodeo that they can’t do what they have done for hundreds of years? Who am I to say that something that is embedded in the cowboy culture needs to be done away with? In other words: Hand over your jerky, we got some nice tofu for you.”
The woman with the petition then insulted me because I would not sign, and she called me a pig. I wondered if an animal rights activist calling someone a pig was really an insult.
It was at that point that the issue was no longer was about animals, it was about animal protests. This woman was a member of People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), and she made it clear that I was less of a man because I think other issues are more serious in America today.
Let me be clear. I am not for the slaughtering of animals. I eat an occasional steak, but I also pick up the occasional stray kitten and take it door to door to help it find a home.
But that isn’t good enough for a protester.
To tell members of PETA that you support the Humane Society and that you feel a special heartwarming feeling go through you when you see that no animals were harmed in the making of the movie you just watched, is an insult to them.
I feel especially justified these days in admitting that terrible things happen to animals everyday, and people let it go on.
Hey, horrendous things also happen to people everyday, and I think our priorities need to be with our brothers and sisters of the human race first.
This “either you’re with me or you’re against me” mentality is the most irritating part. Seriously, don’t any of these people have jobs?
If I don’t agree that big business must end, all fishing and logging must cease and that we all need to wear vinyl shoes, I am obviously for nuking the whales and killing baby cats.
I saw a perfect example of the militant nature of these people when I talked to this woman. She claims that animals are people too.
I challenged this notion by offering this scenario: “If I were on the top floor of a house that was burning and a rottweiler was in another room on that same floor, which would you save?”
Without even thinking, she told me she’d save the dog. I wasn’t insulted by this answer, when I realized that the person I was talking to was obviously insane.
Promoting awareness is good, and being kind to animals is important. But being unkind to people to save animals makes no sense.
Insulting people to prove a point makes no sense, and throwing buckets of blood at people is not going to help.
If you can honestly tell yourself that animals are more important than people, you are a troubled individual.
My wife’s dog, who they considered to be part of the family, died two moths ago. It was truly a sad day and a hard week.
In the same house there are also 18-month-old twins. I cannot imagine the mind that could see the dog together with these two beautiful babies and esteem them as the same.
Individuals in PETA told me that I could not refer to myself as a pet owner, but rather a “domesticated cat caregiver.”
I don’t think a cat in the world cares, so long as I open that can of Fancy Feast everyday.
Cory welcomes feedback at: [email protected] or send letters to the editor to: [email protected].