It’s Not Up For Debate

People are assholes.

This statement probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise to most people, because we know that most of us are assholes; in fact I bet you know a lot of people who are a lot more asshole-ish than you thought possible.

“Don’t accept your dog’s admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.” Ann Landers

I was listening to the radio the other day and heard about a scientist who had trained his dog to sit in an MRI; he (the scientist, not the dog) was able to come up with scientific evidence that dogs are thinking, feeling, sentient creatures. Now for most people that shouldn’t come as any kind of surprise. Most of us (at least I hope that most of us) are aware of the fact that dogs are in fact thinking, feeling, sentient beings. And I’m willing to bet that not only dogs, but cats, pigs, dolphins, whales, rats, etc…etc., are thinking, feeling, sentient beings who are nicer than most human beings. Again, this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.

“The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.” Andy Rooney

But it is nice to hear that there are people – educated, thoughtful, kindly people – who use their time to dig into the lives of those creatures who we share this planet with, and who advocate for those animals. The scientist said that his findings not only changed how he thought about his dog, but how he thought about all the other animals on the planet.

What is not so nice to hear are those ignorant, self-deceiving, hateful people, who deliberately go out of their way to try and convince everyone that he is wrong. Not wrong because their specific scientific discoveries show the opposite findings, but wrong because they said so, or that their particular religion said so, or Uncle Cletus said so.

“If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons.” James Thurber

“God gave mankind dominion over all the animals on earth,” these ignorant wags blather on. Which of course means that whatever cruelty, mistreatment, torture, and ignorance we choose to mete out to our pets, livestock, and wild animals is okay, “cause god said so. So there.”

Assholes.

When I was a kid I was taking a short-cut home and saw two boys throwing rocks at a dog which they had tied to a tree. It was obvious that quite a few of the rocks had hit their mark already because the dog was bleeding quite badly. When I started yelling at them to stop, one of them said that dogs don’t feel pain because it didn’t do anything when it got hit, and with that he let a rock fly which hit the dog with a thump. The poor dog just sat there with its tongue hanging out and panting. That was his proof.

I almost felt the pain of it myself, so not thinking, I picked up a long branch and struck the boy across the back as hard as I could. Both boys were at least two years older than me, and at least a head taller, but the cowards decided not to take on a screaming, crazed ten year old, who was swinging a branch like a club, and calling them every shocking name she could think of. Now had I been tied to a tree I’m pretty sure things wouldn’t have gone so well for me.

In those days we didn’t have a Humane Society, or an SPCA, but there was a lady in town who had started an organization to help animals in need. I had to carry the dog home because he was too injured to walk, and my mother called the woman to come and get it. Later we found out that he had to be put down because his injuries were too numerous to fix. I had nightmares for the rest of the year.

One of those boys was an altar boy in the church; he’s married now and has a couple of kids of his own. The other tried a short stint in politics, is divorced and works as a car salesman. Even forty years later I can’t stand the sight of either of them.

“I care not for a man’s religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it.” Abraham Lincoln

We don’t need science to prove to us that animals have feelings; we can see that for ourselves. But as a species we’ve done a really good job convincing ourselves that the opposite is true. Probably because it’s easier to live in the land of denial than to acknowledge the pain and suffering we inflict on these poor beings.

I think that what we need to do is take all the proofs that are piling up and use them to better the treatment of all the inhabitants on the planet.

Perhaps then we wouldn’t be such major assholes.

Image Credits

“Dog Nurse II” by overdrive_cz. Creative Commons Flickr. Some rights reserved.

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