Children's cruelty

[Guest guest]

On News round yesterday there was an article on children and animal cruelty.

Several reasons why this annoyed me. The first is apparently the word

" animal " only refers to pets.

Can we as a society be surprised when children are cruel to animals?

They're told it's okay to kill animals for food, and because everyone has

selfish interests (except us) it's condoned. Kids see through the amazing

double standards, and suprise-suprise, they are cruel to other animals that

adults aren't. As the reporters final sum up, he said something like

" children must realise what they are doing, and stop being cruel to

animals " . Of course, he meant the animals society has anti-cruelty laws

for, the class above food animals called pets.

My question to the network is this. How do we communicate this without

looking like we're jumping on a bandwagon; and ourselves being accused of

double standards. I.E. to most people it looks like we are condoning the

children's actions. Society is so blind to the facts it'll see us as

opportunistic fiends feeding of the RSPCP (Royal Society for the Protection

of Cruelty to Pets!) " animal " cruelty report.

 

Rowan

[Guest guest]

There have been studies that have linked cruelty to animals in

childhood with cruelty against people, even murder, in adults.

 

I think more should be made of these links - teach our children

respect for life as a whole. I understand what you're saying about it

being hypocritical to condemn children for hurting animals when

society as a whole inflicts far greater suffering, but we have to

come to terms with the fact that we do not live in a vegan world.

Also, the industrialised killing is hidden away - quite simply I

think because most people would find it disgusting, whereas

tormenting a pet is a personal thing that an individual can control.

I think teaching children to respect " pets " or wild animals is a

first step - and if they're bright, they may start asking the same

awkward questions about double standards (i.e. why is it OK to kill a

pig, but not a cat? Or even a guinea pig in a lab, but not a pet

guinea pig?). Adults are very dismissive of these kinds of questions,

because they are already conditioned to accept the situation.

 

In the UK the whole nation was shocked by the James Bulger case, and

has demonised the killers to such as extent, I think, because people

refuse to believe that children could be capable of such acts. What

the RSPCA study shows to me, is that children, without guidance, are

perfectly capable of cruelty, and as you say are not necessarily

aware of the difference between acceptable abuse and unacceptable

abuse. I think if we could raise awareness of the danger that letting

kids torment animals could cause them to be humans killers later, the

fear of another Bulger case could make people get " on-side " as far as

animal abuse goes (admittedly only for " pets " ). Overall I think

reducing cruelty to pets is a valid cause, but as vegans know, is

only half (or less) of the story, but it is a start.

 

--

Rob

 

vegan-network, " Mccartney, Rowan (R.N.) " <rmccar14@v...>

wrote:

> On News round yesterday there was an article on children and animal

cruelty.

> Several reasons why this annoyed me. The first is apparently the

word

> " animal " only refers to pets.

> Can we as a society be surprised when children are cruel to animals?

> They're told it's okay to kill animals for food, and because

everyone has

> selfish interests (except us) it's condoned. Kids see through the

amazing

> double standards, and suprise-suprise, they are cruel to other

animals that

> adults aren't. As the reporters final sum up, he said something

like

> " children must realise what they are doing, and stop being cruel to

> animals " . Of course, he meant the animals society has anti-cruelty

laws

> for, the class above food animals called pets.

> My question to the network is this. How do we communicate this

without

> looking like we're jumping on a bandwagon; and ourselves being

accused of

> double standards. I.E. to most people it looks like we are

condoning the

> children's actions. Society is so blind to the facts it'll see us

as

> opportunistic fiends feeding of the RSPCP (Royal Society for the

Protection

> of Cruelty to Pets!) " animal " cruelty report.

>

> Rowan