My Neighbors Just Ate their Dog (Seriously). What is the libertarian stance on this?

[LibertyEagle]

Man. You guys probably would have called the cops on my grandma. When I was little she would hold conversations with me, sitting on a low bench and with her hands splayed near her feet. While we were talking about whatever, a chicken might wander close by. That was pretty much a fatal mistake. It was grab, twist, swing, smack, and then tie up the feet and ask me to go hang it from the laundry pole in the yard for a bit to drain and finish twitching.

Fresh chicken is delicious.

I can't imagine dog is particularly good, but I would not eat there. Your moral indignation is likely noted, but the idea that if someone kills a dog (rather than killing a chicken or a pig or a cow or a turkey or a deer) when they are young, they will probably become a serial killer... some of you are bonkers.

As for the assertion that the average person is going to be turned off by this discussion, consider that there are a lot of people in this nation who do hunt for food or sport, and who feel pretty strongly that they don't need some PETA PITA running after them screeching that they are awful people.

To me, this is entirely different, Melissa.

I have no problem with people eating animals for food. But, I would hope they would kill them humanely. Snapping a chicken's neck is about the most humane way to end a chicken's life.

That said, I also have no problem with a local community having an ordinance against eating certain animals that the people in that community have designated as pets. But, I will admit that animal cruelty has always been a very tough issue for me. I always have to remind myself that to bring government into it, is how this whole big government thing starts...

 

[NoOneButPaul]

I have no problem with it, its just because its dog that a lot of people do.

Had it been an animal we haven't domesticated everyone here would be all for a person, on their property, killing an animal for food.

Freedom requires tolerance...

 

[Victor Grey]

Freedom requires tolerance...

+1

 

[trey4sports]

anybody else have to read animal rights by peter singer? Makes for an intersting discussion.

in the end though, what makes them so much different from us? The fact that we are a more highly evolved species?

 

[MelissaWV]

anybody else have to read animal rights by peter singer? Makes for an intersting discussion.

in the end though, what makes them so much different from us? The fact that we are a more highly evolved species?

If that is your belief --- that all animals are equal --- then I hope you are at least consistent. No swatting of insects, ridding your home of rodents if they infest, wearing leather, using hairbrushes made at least in part with the hair of dead animals, no meat, very little or no dairy (the conditions under which that is gathered probably makes the animals wish for death), certainly no eggs, obviously no seafood, no plants that have not been very strictly grown and examined (I am quite sure you are eating small bugs more often than you think), no gelatin, or red velvet cake, no antibacterial soaps or lotions, no bleach, no cleaners that might wipe out colonies of bacteria...

It seems like a rough life, but otherwise, it would almost seem as if you are making your own calls on which creatures deserve to die.

Incidentally, I do think the main issue here is how the dog was being killed, and not why. That the OP made it about imposing his idea that killing dogs is wrong, likely weakened his cause. I would have purchased the dog from the neighbor, told the landlord, and promptly moved away. Even if I gave the dog away a week later to a good family, I would have legally purchased it and gotten it away from someone who was going to eat it.

 

[PaulConventionWV]

They eat dog in Korea and Mexico too. People in India think we are nuts because we eat cow. Many Muslims think eating a pig is vile and disgusting. The French eat frogs. Different strokes for different folks.

Eating a pig is pretty disgusting. They're full of parasites and other toxic materials, but it's the poor man's beef, so yeah, to each his own.

 

[awake]

I forgot the most important power: buy the dog to prevent it if all possible.

 

[WilliamC]

Not to make light of or compare the two (well, ok I am actually doing both of those, but it's what popped into my head when I read the title "My Neighbors Ate Their Dog!") I am reminded of this scene from the Stephen King movie Needful Things.

starting at 18 seconds going to 25 seconds in this short trailer

 

[PaulConventionWV]

Yup.

I imagine the sight of freshly gutted deer hanging from a backyard tree would be equally revolting to many.

Exactly. I love venison, so I don't judge anyone else for which animals they eat, but I personally believe some are especially vile and disgusting to ingest because of health concerns. It has nothing to do with the morality of killing specific kinds of animals.

 

[PaulConventionWV]

I could see a libertarian society where animals that had more intelligence had some rights.

That sounds like a society backsliding into totalitarianism. You can't keep a libertarian society very long when your whole basis for rights is intelligence.

 

[phill4paul]

Eating a pig is pretty disgusting. They're full of parasites and other toxic materials, but it's the poor man's beef, so yeah, to each his own.

Sacrilege! Heh, to each their own. More for me!

 

[rpwi]

Well a lot of humane societies kill dogs. If they didn't, we would have overpopulated roaming packs of wild dogs in the cities or dogs that starved in cages because nobody wants to pay to feed, shelter and clean them.

Think what is important is the manner in which an animal with a sophisticated nervous system is killed. It should be quick and humane...as these animals share a lot of our DNA it is reasonable to assume they would share a lot of our same pain. Most libertarians don't find it odd that we have local laws preventing one person from torturing another...so why would it be unreasonable to outlaw a person from torturing an animal that that is dissimilar from humans by only a small percentage of their DNA?

I don't buy the argument that there is a 'gods special gene' that humans have that chimps and other close relatives of us don't have.

 

[phill4paul]

DO NOT search for "BBQ" - "Dog" - Image. Eyes cannot unsee.............

 

[PaulConventionWV]

Hey, vegetables are. people, too!

No, but some people are vegetables.

 

[PaulConventionWV]

Funny man. But plants do have souls, like animals, so you bring up a good point. It is still bad to kill plants. There is an exception, but I won't get into that here at this time.

IMHO, I disagree that plants have souls. However, I also disagree that humans have souls. The idea of the soul is a flawed, pagan concept that has survived in the minds of men only. Humans are special. It has nothing to do with a "soul".

 

[Brian4Liberty]

... isn't hanging the dog from a tree and beating it to death with a stick (the Chuukese custom) animal cruelty?

Any "civilized" Mexican would find it disgusting.

Hmmm. I sense the origins of the Pinata somewhere here...

 

[rpwi]

IMHO, I disagree that plants have souls. However, I also disagree that humans have souls. The idea of the soul is a flawed, pagan concept that has survived in the minds of men only. Humans are special. It has nothing to do with a "soul".

What about our near cousins? Homo rudolfensis? Homo erectus? Neanderthals? Are they special? Tricky issue...

 

[BlackTerrel]

Are we basing what is ok to eat based on who is cuter? How is eating a cow or chicken any better?

 

[archangel689]

I don't presume to know what a dog or wolf is thinking. But if you want my serious answer, when a creature becomes capable of Human Action, then I will recognize it.

The thing that dogs are missing is the ability to conceptualize property rights and self-ownership of others.

 

[Brian4Liberty]

Cows are put down more humanely than that.

Don't fool yourself.