Animal rights group, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), is offering up a free vasectomy to a man who recently had his pet neutered. Calling the contest a “two-fer,” the group is offering up one vasectomy – a reimbursement of up to $500 once the procedure is confirmed – so “one lucky man be reproduction free, free of charge, just like his pooch or feline friend.” …The men must also answer the question, “Why should PETA neuter you?” and tell the judges “how his sterilization will most benefit both humans and animals.”

 

“How his sterilization will most benefit humans and animals?” It would be uncharitable to go into all the reasons.

Monique Smith, 19, of Brooklyn was arguing with a family member in June when she reached for the hamster, choked it and threw it outside the house, police said.

I actually think grabbing an animal and killing it just because you can is horrifying and is a sign of something desperately wrong. I also think taking yourself off to a clinic to kill your unborn child is a sign that something is desperately wrong. It’s just that we are more concerned about hamsters in our current cultural milieu. There’s no other way to put it.

You may have read the story of the 100 healthy sled dogs that were destroyed in British Columbia for business reasons. People are shocked, of course. Why, killing healthy dogs just like that, imagine!

So of course along came a scholar with the idea of conferring some kind of status on our pets, so as to prevent humans from treating them like vulgar property and disposing of them pretty much at will.

I think it’s a brilliant idea, except I’d start with making sure all human beings are covered before moving on to pets.

Wish they had a rule like that for killing humans…

p.s. coyotes really are a pest.

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Deborah adds: Tell that to the folks at the University of Victoria. Even the hippies there are okay with a rabbit cull.

People? Not so much.

Why am I thinking this today? Because I quite enjoyed seeing Mine Your Own Business this afternoon. And the focus of that documentary was…people. People who need jobs, and the environmentalists who hinder that. The director Phelim McAleer said in the question time afterwards that the two most dangerous words he knows are “sustainable development” because what it typically means is sustainable poverty. Bam! You never hear that in Canada.

So I went to shake his hand after to say I enjoyed the film. (By the way, he and his wife also did Not Evil, Just Wrong, another great documentary.) I also mentioned I’m pro-life, and perhaps he could do a film about the population control side of the environmental movement. He jumped in to point out that they want to get rid of certain people–the brown and black people who are poor. That’s when he pointed out that he cares for people, not the environment.

This reminded me of our t-shirts, People for the Ethical Treatment of People, because you really wouldn’t treat a dog like this. Sadly, with people, it’s all fair game. Pun intended.

I don’t follow figure skating and the name “Johnny Weir” means nothing to me. But I like how he handles annoying critics. Go Johnny!

p.s. think we should send him a t-shirt?

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Andrea’s favourite part of what this figure skater says:

There are humans dying everyday. There are thousands if not millions of homeless people in New York City. Look at what just happened in Haiti. I tend to focus my energy, if there is a cause, on humans. While that may be callous and bad of me, it’s my choice.”

He concludes by saying:

Every skater is wearing skates made out of cow,” Weir said. “Maybe I’m wearing a cute little fox while everyone else is wearing cow, but we’re all still wearing animals.”

Good citizenship is not just a question of respect for one’s fellow humans, it seems. The government has decreed that children should be taught not to hurt a fly.

New curriculum guidance says citizenship classes should pay due regard to the wellbeing of what it calls “mini-beasts”, including bees, ants and worms.

The classes are part of the “animals and us” section of the primary school citizenship curriculum. It says children can become “active citizens” by learning that “other living things have needs and they have responsibilities to meet them”.

By the age of seven pupils should have learnt that “humans have a responsibility to ensure the wellbeing of animals, including mini-beasts” and will have been told rules for “behaviour in areas where animals live”: for example, “not stamping on insects”.

Hey, I’m all for looking after animals and refraining from hurting insects (I make exceptions for mosquitoes, black flies, and deer flies – these I have an absolute right to exterminate at will). I just wish they’d teach kids to respect smaller forms of human life as well, is all.

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Update: A thoughtful reader reminds me that this would be a splendid time for a t-shirt plug.