you know what I hate about the discourse around animals? People get so caught up on whether or not doing something hurts an animal. (this came up from me looking up de-horning baby goats)

You get people who (rightfully) point out that doing a thing to an animal hurts them but say it as if that means that doing the thing is therefor wrong. And then people who (rightfully) support doing the thing but defend it by insisting that whatever it is doesn't hurt the animal -- even if they have to go so far as to claim animals can't feel pain at all ever And it's like -- no. It is good to sometimes do things to animals even though it might hurt them.

I hate the circle of nonsense that people get caught up in bc ppl accept that something hurting = abuse = bad = never do it no matter what and don't question the base assumption there.

Like yeah, de-horning a goat hurts them. So what? Giving a person a spinal tap or rabies treatment hurts too but nobody argues hospitals should stop doing them. They're medical treatments that are done bc the suffering the treatment causes is worth the long-term benefits -- and so is goat de-horning since it makes it harder for the goats to get themselves snagged on shit & hurting themselves in the process, not to mention the safety benefit to those around them.

Sometimes taking care of things requires hurting them. It's just a fact of life. There's no point denying that & it bothers me that radically mis-applied harm reduction theory has distorted the discourse so much.

& since we're here, trans rights are human rights, veganism is a lib psyop & circumcision is not a big deal.

  • warped_fungus [she/her]
    ·
    3 years ago

    goats wouldn't need their horns trimmed if they were able to live the way nature intended instead of being crammed together until they're "taken care of" clean through the jugular

    • deshara218 [any]
      hexagon
      ·
      3 years ago

      okay? I guess cats & dogs wouldnt need to be spayed if we just put them down instead too. Not really much of a constructive argument. Unless you're implying pet goats on small farms don't experience benefits from being de-horned, in which case, pet goats on small farm experience the benefits from being de-horned too. The only goats that don't are the ones who live out on a mountaintop with no fences or structures around

    • deshara218 [any]
      hexagon
      ·
      3 years ago

      nice cult of radical personal responsibility that shifts blame for environmental collapse off of capital & onto personal consumers making personal consumption choices :bean: can't figure out why billionaires donate money to such a "leftist" cause

      • maverick [they/them]
        ·
        edit-2
        3 years ago

        Imagine calling yourself a leftist and not understanding the immensely detrimental effects of industrial animal agriculture on the environment, slaughterhouse workers, and of course the animals themselves.

        Couldn't be me :michael-laugh:

  • Kaputnik [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    Hurting animals like this isn't necessary because it skirts around a problem that is entirely human created rather than actually addressing the problem. It's like looking at global warming and saying we should aerosolize the atmosphere instead of addressing carbon output.

    • deshara218 [any]
      hexagon
      ·
      3 years ago

      okay cool well if i adopt a couple of goat kids i'll go ahead and dismantle capitalism so i wouldnt have to fence them onto my property instead of de-horning them. very useful suggestion

      • Saint [he/him]
        ·
        3 years ago

        There's really no such thing as a goat-safe fence?

        • deshara218 [any]
          hexagon
          ·
          3 years ago

          theres no such thing as a goat safe farm, or goat safe goats, or people safe goats. I've seen a goat hook itself on a round doorknob

  • VeganVanguard [any,comrade/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    :vegan-edge: VEGAN VANGUARD IS ON THE SCENE :vegan-edge:

    🚨 LIBERAL CARNISM DETECTED 🚨

    YOU ARE BEING TAKEN TO VEGAN GULAG, PLEASE DO NOT RESIST

  • pepe_silvia96 [he/him]
    ·
    3 years ago

    you're right. help me out with my issue though.

    my sister adopted a cat recently. I've always been skeptical about house cats. theyre such free spirits, I feel like I'm inhibiting them from living their ideal life. I feel this despite knowing that they will live longer indoors. and unfortunately I live alongside a busy road, so I feel like letting her out would be negligent.

    and just for some background; I lived on the ground floor of an apartment in istanbul for a good chunk of my life. Istanbul is a city known for stray cats...I love cats so i always had one in my home, but they always had the ability to leave and do cat thing as they pleased in areas where there were no cars.

    you may see this as me taking care of my cat...but I feel like I'm domesticating an animal not meant for domestication in the 21st century. like for 5,000 years of human civilization, there were no cars or apartments. all cats who had human feeders lived a free life for most of their day.

    help me feel better about my slave friend.

    • deshara218 [any]
      hexagon
      ·
      3 years ago

      my grandma has had barn cats her whole life, so this is a solved mystery for me; they prefer living in the house if given the option. Every barn cats want in the house, and every house cat wants out to the barn, every barn cat that becomes a house cat does not want to be put back in the barn and every house cat that becomes a barn cat wants back in. House cats only want out bc the grass is always greener but when given a choice between a life of comfort with the ability to play-hunt at will (depending on the availability of things to play with/owners with the energy to) or a life of hunting where comfort has to be carved out, they'd choose the former. PS, house cats aren't capable of surviving in the wild, they are domesticated. Cats individually can survive outdoors, and when supplied with food & shelter by humans a colony can live outdoors, but if humans vanished cat colonies would die off too. So there is no such thing as letting cats "live free", there's just a choice of letting cats live with you or letting them live in your back yard. There is no ethical solution to cats that doesn't involve human contact & support -- we are a part of them in the same way that our kidney is a part of us.