Re: Obama upsets PETA

jmcquown <j_mcquown@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I'm all for compassion but since when is a fly an "animal'?

In fairness, flies *are* animals.

I certainly dislike a number of insects and other bugs, but to be
honest, I try not to kill them. Don't always succeed at this - if there
are 10,000 ants traipsing through my living room, some of them are going
to die, unfortunately. If something poisonous was hanging out in my
apartment where it could get near my cats, it's dead. Generally I try
to leave things alone, even if I shudder when I see them. As Tweed says,
"It's not the spider's fault I can't stand it." I love that quote.

One time I was at a party in a rented function room, so lots of space.
Also, lots of open windows for "nature" to come inside. People were
dancing in the main room and I was sitting at a table, when I noticed
a small spider walking around, not far from where people's feet were
landing on the floor. I took pity on it and decided to rescue it and
bring it outside. As I was picking it up onto a piece of paper, I caught
sight of a friend of mine giving me a knowing, and slightly condescending
smile. (Nothing really mean - it was more like, "Oh, there goes Joyce
again, my kooky animal-lover friend, rescuing spiders from being squashed
on the dance floor!") It's embarrassing, but there you are. I'm sentimental
that way.

I don't care
who you are, if a fly is constantly buzzing around your head (or your food)
and you have a chance to smack it, you will. Ditto mosquitoes.

Actually, I do leave flies alone, *most* of the time. But mosquitoes, you
do have a point! If one is buzzing in my ear when I'm trying to sleep, it's
dead if I can manage to kill it. Luckily, I live in a fairly dry part of
the country and there's no standing water nearby, so I don't get many
mosquitoes anymore.

In the grand scheme of things I have yet to figure out what purpose
either of these insects serve. There's probably something I don't
know about but to me they are simply pests.

I can't answer this because I don't know where flies fit in specifically.
But everything pretty much has some role in the local ecosystem. If it
didn't, it probably wouldn't last very long as a species. I actually find
this topic fascinating. No matter how repulsive something might be, it
very likely has an important role somewhere, which down the line is
ultimately connected to human life, among other things.

IMHO those PETA people are really over the top. With everything else that's
going on in the world, if they really expect a statement from the White
House about the fly "execution" I sure hope they aren't holding their
collective breath ;)

PETA is one of the world's most annoying activist groups. I'm sure
there are many groups that have a far worse agenda, and I sympathize
with PETA's overall purpose, but they're a bunch of *ssh*les! These are
the people who used to throw blood at women wearing furs. I'm against
the fur industry farming animals just to kill them for expensive coats
too, but harassing women on the street? Now there's a radical idea.

And they're totally against the keeping of domesticated species as pets.
Don't they understand the meaning of "domesticated"? They're dependent
on us! We're responsible for them.

And then there was their "go vegetarian" campaign where they would fly
planes over beaches with a banner behind them saying "Don't get FAT, eat
vegetarian!" Cool, raise awareness of your cause by scapegoating a group
of people who are already despised in our society (not to mention being
wrong, since vegetarian diets can be high-calorie). Talk about shooting
fish in a barrel. Oops, I mean, um, shooting cubes of tofu in a barrel?

Nope, don't like PETA at all.

--
Joyce ^..^

To email me, remove the XXX from my user name.
.

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