Commentary: Where is the outrage when humans are abused?

[Prrkitty]

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/12/martin/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

Quote: When federal prosecutors in Virginia released details of the dogfighting charges against Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, all hell broke loose.

Folks were protesting, calling for him to be immediately kicked out of the league, and demanding long jail sentences for Vick and his co-defendants.

Many lawyers went on television and admitted that had Vick beat a girlfriend, shot or even murdered someone, he wouldn't have been slammed as hard as he was for the vicious acts committed against dogs.

I suppose those lawyers are right.

Just look at the case of Megan Williams. The 20-year-old West Virginia woman, Megan Williams, was kidnapped by six sadistic individuals and held in a mobile home.

They raped her, forced her to eat rat and dog feces, made her drink from a toilet, stabbed her multiple times, and called the black woman a "nigger" every time they beat her.

Thank God she lived, and may be released from the hospital in a few days.
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This article is too true. Our (humans) outrage seems to be very disproportionate. There was a very huge visible outrage in the Vick incident. But the outrage for (as the example) the 20 year old black West Virginia woman isn't so visible.

Could it be that humanity is becoming "used to" these sort of atrocities against humanity? Could it be that we hear about it so much that we've almost become immune to it's affects?

I think it's a shame (and that's putting it mildly) when the media puts more emphasis on Britney's act (or mis-act) on MTV ... then the atrocities that happened against the West Virginia woman.

It seems the media places too much importance on the "screw ups" of actors/actresses and not enough importance on every day issues (for lack of a better way to put it).

And honestly I'm not sure how to have this fact ... fixed.

[Aegix Drakan]

:shrug: That's because people don't WANT to hear about what happens to other humans. Partly because most people don't even give a damn about their own neighbors. Although I find animal abuse horrible, I think that the focus SHOULD be on human abuse. People tend to get away with so much, that it's digusting. Oftentimes, I hear about child molesters/serial rapist who are repeat offenders, who get jail sentences that are far from enough, and then, they get let out into society in children filled areas, and we don't even bother to keep tabs on them. It just goes to show that humanity generally couldn't care less about itself. -_-

*for background, I am a pacifist. I would never attack another human except under the direst of circumstances*


But maybe the problem isn't just the media. Maybe the problem is you. The reader. The viewer. Maybe you've decided that you care more about discussing a celebrity than nobodies like Megan Williams, Channon Christian or Christopher Newsom.

This statement contains 100% pure ownage, right there.

[Rainman]

Humans seems to be treating pets like they are human babies or children now which makes sense because most were bred for such a purpose. Many dog and cat breeds have been bred so child-like characteristics are emphasized even when they are adults. As a result there are a lot of people who get the same instinctual reaction that they should get for babies when they hear of animal abuse.

So unfortunately a lot of people seem to like animals way more than humans.

[erm2003]

I am sure it is the celebrity status that makes a difference though.

Vick is well known by many Americans.
Vick makes millions of dollars each year.
Vick is/was a role model for children.

When something goes wrong with someone with those qualifications, then the media will jump all over that because more people will be interested in the news stories and BUY THEIR PAPERS/MAGAZINES.

So is it really fair to blame the reader? Maybe it's the people who sell the news...

[phattonez]

I like to blame people like this.

http://images.southparkstudios.com/media/images/808/808_img_13.jpg

Yeah, the media chooses what we get mad about.

[vegeta1215]

I don't read the news, let alone watch much TV, but of course even I've heard about Michael Vick and the dogs. Sure, it's cruel, but those murder stories in that article are horrendous. It's all the media - they choose what we see, and of course "we" are already so interested in the lives of celebrities that anything they can drag out to get ratings or whatever, they will. It also doesn't help that various forms of media such as movies and video games etc have desensitized us to a lot of things.

[Skulkraken]

I'm not really so sure there's been much desensitizing at all going on. Personally, I don't think humanity was ever really that sensitive about violence against other humans to begin with. Examples would be the gladiators in ancient Rome, the 'rule of thumb', the 'Cops and Robbers' game lots of little kids have played in the past, etc...

[mikeron]

When was the last time a dog carjacked you or stole your identity? For the most part, I think of animals as innocent and more or less defenseless. Humans, on the other hand, are usually better equipped for dealing with people. Granted, violence against people is wrong, but animal abuse usually goes unpunished, which compounds people's feelings on the issue.

[phattonez]

When was the last time that a pit-bull attacked someone? Oh yeah, that happens seemingly all the time. Really, I don't see any other reason besides the media influence.

[Glenn the Great]

See, isn't this exactly what I was trying to tell you guys back in the last dogfighting thread? About society getting to where we care about animals more than humans?

All I can say is that this mentality, whether media transmitted or otherwise, has not touched me. In my mind, animals are food, like they have been since ancient times.

[phattonez]

Even if they are just "food" as you put it, it does not give us the right to torture them any more so than we can do to humans.

Of course people will not get outraged if they don't even know about the thing that they would be outraged about.

[Glenn the Great]

Even if they are just "food" as you put it, it does not give us the right to torture them any more so than we can do to humans.


Am I completely unable to do anything unless I am "given" a "right" to do it? How do I know I haven't "received" such a "right"?

Please tell me where all of my rights are listed. I can't remember anyone ever giving me the right to turn off the lights in my room, or throw the rock that I threw when I went outside, or all of the other things I did today. I'm really worried that maybe I didn't have the right to do these things! Maybe I should say some prayers about it and ask forgiveness.

[phattonez]

Just because it's not listed as a right that you shouldn't kill people doesn't mean that you do it. Some things are inherent, anything that causes pain should not be done. This has nothing to do with religion which you seem to want to bring up for no good reason.

[Glenn the Great]

Animals aren't people though, and they don't really feel pain like we do. They don't have souls.

Maybe you should stop hurting plants. They are living things too, you know.

[phattonez]

Animals have nerves, they whimper, they feel pain. You go to get a pig for Christmas like I have and you tell me that those screams aren't from pain.

Plants don't feel pain, what are you thinking?

[biggiy05]

See, isn't this exactly what I was trying to tell you guys back in the last dogfighting thread? About society getting to where we care about animals more than humans?

All I can say is that this mentality, whether media transmitted or otherwise, has not touched me. In my mind, animals are food, like they have been since ancient times.

Yeah.....


Animals aren't people though, and they don't really feel pain like we do. They don't have souls.

Maybe you should stop hurting plants. They are living things too, you know.

Until you can pull some proof out of your ass that animals can't feel pain then you're full of shit as usual.

My dog felt pain when she slipped on the tile and was limping this morning. My horse felt pain last week when the sharp end of a stick gave him a nice gash on his side. If you kick an animal and they scream why are they screaming if it isn't from pain?

It's a losing battle so you're better off just giving up and admitting you are wrong.

[Glenn the Great]

Plants don't feel pain, what are you thinking?

Didn't FernGully teach you anything? Sheesh.

[AtmaWeapon]

Actually biggy, though sometimes your words just hypnotize me I think you are in error. Glenn said that animals don't feel pain like we do. While the meaning of the phrase "like we do" is ambiguous, I took it to have the meaning "Animals do not feel pain in the same manner as humans" rather than "Animals do not feel pain at all; humans do feel pain". I agree with the former.

While your dog obviously feels pain due to the injuries she received because you let her on a slippery floor, and the animals you kick scream out in pain, animals manage to view pain temporarily and odds are good that in a week or so your dog will be perfectly fine and the animals you kicked will be getting on with their lives. Humans have this weird tendency to wallow in misery and extend the duration of negative feelings; a twisted ankle from a slippery floor at Wal-Mart is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to a single mother who was there to cash her food stamps for beer and the settlement from assault charges if you kicked a man in his face would no doubt cause you more lingering pain and suffering than his injury did.

Yet still, we identify more strongly with the pain of animals, who seem to be fine with the concept of "I don't hurt now therefore I am fine", than with humans, who seem to be completely unaware that pain can cease.

I suppose a valid attack on my stance is that repeated pain can permanently affect an animal. For example, if your dog slips enough on the floor it will be harder to get her to walk on that floor, and the animals you are kicking might start to get agitated by your presence. It can be argued that this kind of learned response is present in almost every organism, which can lead one to believe either it is unrelated to intelligence/sentience or our definition of intelligence/sentience needs revising.

[biggiy05]

I will agree with you to an extent about animals forgetting the pain faster than humans will. How we do know what type of pain animals feel though? The have organs, a brain, blood vessels, etc.. so they are built like humans in a sense but do we know how an animal thinks or views pain?

Oh and I didn't plan on letting her go on the floor. I was outside in the garage and heard the ball bouncing down the fall followed by a thud as she crashed into the front door.:tongue:


I suppose a valid attack on my stance is that repeated pain can permanently affect an animal. For example, if your dog slips enough on the floor it will be harder to get her to walk on that floor, and the animals you are kicking might start to get agitated by your presence. It can be argued that this kind of learned response is present in almost every organism, which can lead one to believe either it is unrelated to intelligence/sentience or our definition of intelligence/sentience needs revising.

[AlexMax]

Vick is well known by many Americans.
Vick makes millions of dollars each year.
Vick is/was a role model for children.

Spot on. If Vick was some backwoods country retard the news would have never even made a blip on Fox News' radar. If anything, this shows us how celebrity-obsessed the news media is these days.

[Glenn the Great]

I bet $50 dollars that my cat could beat Biggiy's dog if they had a fight in Vick's Ice Arena.

I'm going to round up all of my black homeboys and challenge Biggiy and his dog, and we're planning to call him a pussy if he backs down.

[biggiy05]

I bet $50 dollars that my cat could beat Biggiy's dog if they had a fight in Vick's Ice Arena.

I'm going to round up all of my black homeboys and challenge Biggiy and his dog, and we're planning to call him a pussy if he backs down.

Don't spam Glenn and a pussy eh?

[Lilith]

america doesn't care about black women because it's not as sexy if they get beat up or kidnapped.

[mikeron]

When was the last time that a pit-bull attacked someone? Oh yeah, that happens seemingly all the time. Really, I don't see any other reason besides the media influence.

There's more media bias. Pit bulls are often trained to be vicious by irresponsible owners, usually in conjunction with severe abuse. Most of the time, if you hear about a pit bull biting someone, there's some scumbag owner who's been training the dog for precisely the qualities that led to the attack. If someone raises a pit bull responsibly, it can be just as friendly as any other breed.

P.S. The worst natural personality I've ever seen in a dog was in my grandmother's dachsund. That was a mean dog.