A Vickcup on the Way to McDonald's

Nice title, eh? Supposed to be a play on the phrase "A hiccup on the way to McDonald's"! Get it?

Anyway, here goes. While it is true that Micheal Vick is one huge asshole for that whole dogfighting thing, what about all the rest of the animal abusers out there?

Dogfighting is a bad, bad thing, but hasn't anyone out there read Fast Food Nation? Everyone who eats factory farmed meat in North America is dining on the corpse of an animal that was probably dispatched just as cruelly as the unfortunate creatures of Bad Newz Kennels. But treated even more badly when alive.

I don't mean to be a preachy PETA-type here, but the information is starkly apparent to anyone who chooses to look. The Quintonian used to eat as much meat as an Eskimo on the Atkins Diet, until a chance encounter with a parked rig full of pigs on the way to the slaughterhouse caused a serious ethical crisis. Which was eventually resolved toward a state of half-assed vegetarianism, with frequent lapses. So there is no stone being cast here. When I feel the urge to join the goosepile and condemn Michael Vick these days, though, I think of that burger I had last week, and the cows it used to belong to (because ground beef is usually composed of the the meat of numerous cows-- didn't you read Fast Food Nation?) Those cows spent the last part of their lives jammed on a feedlot eating substances that Mother Nature did not intend them to, before being transported and shredded by the Killing Machine, sometimes hung and/or electrocuted, just like at Bad Newz Kennels. And cows still have it better than chickens and pigs, who spend their entire sad, dismal lives inside cages too small to turn around in.

And what about greyhound racing? This ridiculous enterprise is still legal in many states. Despite the encouragement of adoption nowadays, a great many of these noble dogs are wiped out once they start to slow down on the racetrack. Killed for underperformance, just like Michael Vick's mutts. But why aren't there shackled greyhound track operators being frogmarched before the media? How come the useless, utterly trivial sports media don't chatter about that? Maybe because they are too lazy and non-original to google "greyhound racing"?

And when was the last time a bull fighter was suspended by the Commissioner of Bullfighting for being cruel to bulls?

And what about hunting? On what level is killing a pit bull worse than blowing away a deer minding its own business in some forest?

Michael Vick certainly deserves to cool his jets for awhile in the hoosegow. But the lynch mob ought to think long and hard about its own inconsistent and hypocritical relationship with animals.

Comments

[Brandon]

"And what about hunting?" Well let me tell you a really obvious difference between hunting and dog fighting. One is illegal and the other isn't.

[this blog]

lame!!!!!!