I'm not saying I know anything about this man who was saying this, but statistically, he is most likely not vegan. And statistically, the majority of the people who watch this show are most likely not vegan. Yet because they enjoy ACH they are probably morally opposed to dog fighting. And this is where the hypocrisy come in: how can someone be disgusted by one kind of abuse of animals and not another? Why are dogs considered superior to cows, chickens, turkeys, horses, buffalo, and all other kinds of animals murdered for their flesh?
Dogfighting is a form of entertainment, but so is the consumption of meat
Humans do not need meat to survive. There is absolutely no nutritional benefit to eating meat that isn't healthier when obtained from a plant food, and in fact, there is peer reviewed evidence that suggests that eating animal-based foods will do nothing but make you sick. That is: higher chance of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and hypertension, just to name a few. It would be surprising for me to hear that someone didn't know that to have a healthier diet you need to decrease animal based foods in all forms and increase fresh foods and vegetables - isn't that common sense?
Therefore, the only benefit I can logically find from eating meat is cultural. It is entertaining to eat meat because meat has a lot of fat. That, and all of the chemicals added to the animal's food when it was alive and the chemicals added to the flesh after it was killed, create a chemical reaction in the brain that makes you feel like you're eating something satisfying, when really it's pretty empty as far as actual nutritional content and ability to keep you alive and healthy.
Eating meat must also make people feel powerful. It puts humans in the position of being at the top of the food chain. It makes humans have dominion over all other creatures, because "Man is almighty," forget about god. We like the idea of being Man the Hunter because, well, humans have huge egos and are incredible narcissists. None of the other creatures on earth give a shit about this, yet humans are NUMBER 1!!! in a contest that doesn't even exist. Tearing into a sentient being's flesh with your teeth is a very powerful image, and does create a power dynamic... but the problem is that that dynamic has been bastardized in our society, and is becoming more so in societies all over the world. My opinion is that all living creatures should be respected and equal, and that that dynamic should not exist, but that is probably too radical or something.
Meanwhile, as we're horrified by dogfighting, we allow factory farms to continue to be legal (there is so much information about factory farming beyond that link, which is pretty expansive. Try here for an introduction). In fact, these factory farms are encouraged to be treat the animals poorly in order to increase efficiency. And actually, those which are corporately owned are legally obligated to make more money, no matter the sacrifice.
Dogfighting is a form of entertainment, but so are commercials
There is a commercial on TV right now where a manic-looking grandfather tied strings to two dead chicken bodies, making them dance, and the grandchildren are making the music for this puppet show of HORRORS!
Just watch:
But seriously, it's pretty disgusting, once you think about it. At first I was just bemused. Then, it made me disgusted. Then, it made me angry... and reminded me of something: Remember when American soldiers in Afghanistan were taking pictures with the dead bodies of the Afghans they had killed and the Afghani suicide bombers, smiling and laughing? This has happened a few times. Those soldiers had been forced into an environment were the people from the country we're fighting are no longer seen as being human. They had been forced to lose some of their own humanity. This always happens in war: in order for soldiers to kill, those other people have to be dehumanized, and usually demonized. This is the exact same way we treat the animals in our lives: chickens are not thinking, feeling, calculating creatures that want happiness and comfort, and want to avoid pain and suffering. They are bodies, and those bodies do no deserve respect.
When those pictures came out of the soldiers, the country was shocked and disgusted. We discussed what war does to soldiers, and if there is a way we can fix the situation, and what we should do with the soldiers, because what happened was wrong. I argue that these soldiers were doing the same thing with those human bodies that our greater society does with non-human animal bodies. We as a society have lost that same piece of our humanity that those soldiers did, but since humans are on some higher level, it became noticeable with them, and is not with this commercial.
There are examples of it everywhere, but I chose this commercial is because of the subtlety and the normalcy of it. Once the subtle and the normalized become noticed as wrong, then the more obvious becomes glaring. Dogfighting is one of those examples. We consider there to be something wrong with people that abuse dogs and cats. It is a recognizable wrong in our culture. It has been linked to human abuse. We know it's morally wrong. But the most subtle has always been more confusing.
I know you're thinking, 'why should I care?' (and I know this because you're human and that makes you a selfish jerk). The thing is, all animal abuse is linked to human abuse, not just the abuse of the animals we choose to respect. In fact, that lack of respect may be one of the major problems in the US today, and we learn it first from the animals in our lives, then from out peers, and then from the greater society. Of course we respect our elders, but why respect something or someone you consider lower that you on the "food chain?" And eventually, that means that the CEO billionaire dehumanizes the poor person in their mind, and economically abuses them. Let's be real, our economy isn't getting better. The only way it will is if the ones at the top reclaim that part of their humanity that they have lost, and do what they need to do to fix the economy, and that requires respecting all people and all creatures.
Dogfighting is disgusting and horrible and sad.
But the way we treat many of the other animals in our society is disgusting and horrible and sad. It is hypocritical to care about one and not the other. If we start thinking about these other instances as the same lacking in morality, only then can we start fixing ourselves as people, because it cannot be denied that something is seriously and deeply wrong.
