Animal Rights/ The Public Reaction

[Condi]

What is it which causes people to get so excited about "some" animal rights, and not others? Why does "the mob" (aka C list celebs etc) hound some people and not others?

10 days ago (or whatever it was) the Daily Mail ran a headline story about someone kicking a horse and slapping it across the face. The girl in the video was given death threats and suspended from her job.

Today, 2/3rds of the page down on the same webpage there is a story about Chinese officials killing a pet dog by hitting it in the head with a crowbar. The reason given - their owner was in quarantine for Covid (although not positive). No "mob justice", not C list celebs on twitter, not headline news.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10204173/...

So, why is the death of a dog killed by crowbar a story 2/3rds of the way down the page, yet the kick of a horse worthy of headline news? I genuinely don't get it. Animal rights are important, but if the energy input was proportionate to the act, then maybe more animals might actually be saved.

[JuanCarlosFandango]

Condi said:

What is it which causes people to get so excited about "some" animal rights, and not others? Why does "the mob" (aka C list celebs etc) hound some people and not others?

10 days ago (or whatever it was) the Daily Mail ran a headline story about someone kicking a horse and slapping it across the face. The girl in the video was given death threats and suspended from her job.

Today, 2/3rds of the page down on the same webpage there is a story about Chinese officials killing a pet dog by hitting it in the head with a crowbar. The reason given - their owner was in quarantine for Covid (although not positive). No "mob justice", not C list celebs on twitter, not headline news.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10204173/...

So, why is the death of a dog killed by crowbar a story 2/3rds of the way down the page, yet the kick of a horse worthy of headline news? I genuinely don't get it. Animal rights are important, but if the energy input was proportionate to the act, then maybe more animals might actually be saved.

Same reason people judge Israel to be a brutal fascist regime and Yemen to have different cultural norms. Or judge the US to be a land of murderous racists with an unhealthy obsession with guns but Haiti to be an unfortunate poor country.

We judge people more harshly if they are superficially like us but jarringly different in some way.

On a subconscious level most British people would see a Chinese official brutally killing a dog as the kind of thing those savage little yellow bds do, but judge a white English woman beating a horse to have stepped outside a boundary of what we middle class white British folk know to be decent behaviour.

[rodericb]

And research involving sedating beagles and sticking their heads into boxes containing hungry sandflies.....

[ZedLeg]

I’d hope most people wouldn’t think that at all.

I can’t speak for c list celebrities or “the mob” but what can we do about a person killing a dog in China?

I don’t think that the outrage press should be used as a gauge of what people care about.

[LimaDelta]

JuanCarlosFandango said:

Same reason people judge Israel to be a brutal fascist regime and Yemen to have different cultural norms. Or judge the US to be a land of murderous racists with an unhealthy obsession with guns but Haiti to be an unfortunate poor country.

We judge people more harshly if they are superficially like us but jarringly different in some way.

On a subconscious level most British people would see a Chinese official brutally killing a dog as the kind of thing those savage little yellow bds do, but judge a white English woman beating a horse to have stepped outside a boundary of what we middle class white British folk know to be decent behaviour.

A really good answer.

Edit:

It is also strange that posting a pic of a recently harvested red stag is likely to attract the baying mob, yet a photo showing a line caught fish will fly completely under the radar, despite the latter being arguably more traumatic for the creature, and C&R is often fatal anyway, and ultimately pointless (if you aren't going to kill and eat the animal, why cause it so much suffering for your enjoyment?). Perceived sentience, deer>fish.

Edited by LimaDelta on Tuesday 16th November 07:29

[A Winner Is You]

LimaDelta said:

JuanCarlosFandango said:

Same reason people judge Israel to be a brutal fascist regime and Yemen to have different cultural norms. Or judge the US to be a land of murderous racists with an unhealthy obsession with guns but Haiti to be an unfortunate poor country.

We judge people more harshly if they are superficially like us but jarringly different in some way.

On a subconscious level most British people would see a Chinese official brutally killing a dog as the kind of thing those savage little yellow bds do, but judge a white English woman beating a horse to have stepped outside a boundary of what we middle class white British folk know to be decent behaviour.

A really good answer.

Edit:

It is also strange that posting a pic of a recently harvested red stag is likely to attract the baying mob, yet a photo showing a line caught fish will fly completely under the radar, despite the latter being arguably more traumatic for the creature, and C&R is often fatal anyway, and ultimately pointless (if you aren't going to kill and eat the animal, why cause it so much suffering for your enjoyment?). Perceived sentience, deer>fish.

Edited by LimaDelta on Tuesday 16th November 07:29

Fish are a bit different though, there's still no consensus about them even feeling pain, or experiencing it in the same way a mammal does.

[LimaDelta]

A Winner Is You said:

Fish are a bit different though, there's still no consensus about them even feeling pain, or experiencing it in the same way a mammal does.

Even if that was proven true (which it hasn't), you don't believe they have a right to live their life, without being dragged from the water with a hook through their face, half suffocated and then thrown back in, all so some 'sportsman' can take a photo to show their prowess? I have no issue with hunting for food, but C&R makes no sense to me whatsoever.

[Chainsaw Rebuild]

ZedLeg said:

I’d hope most people wouldn’t think that at all.

I can’t speak for c list celebrities or “the mob” but what can we do about a person killing a dog in China?

I don’t think that the outrage press should be used as a gauge of what people care about.

I think this is exactly correct. Both are abhorrent but ot doesn’t feel like we (the public) can do anything about the chinese officials, but the horse abuser on the other hand the public can do something about.

[Randy Winkman]

ZedLeg said:

I’d hope most people wouldn’t think that at all.

I can’t speak for c list celebrities or “the mob” but what can we do about a person killing a dog in China?

I don’t think that the outrage press should be used as a gauge of what people care about.

Yes - one incident was in the UK, the other in China. All sorts of horrible things go on all over the world but they cant all be shown in the press in the UK.

[austinsmirk]

I pointed out in another thread how we culled 100’000’s of pets in ww2 as of course feeding your family is more important than a cat. That went down well.

This was in the context of climate change and the impact of ( I assume billions) of pointless domestic animals must have to the planet.

Look at that knob: pen farthing rescuing dogs from Afghanistan whilst children, women and men are left to die etc. Brilliant: so some worthy individual can tell literally everyone they ever meet “ oh it’s a rescue dog from Afghanistan don’t ya know”. Aren’t I such a great person.

Because there’s no dogs in kennels here needing a home I guess ?

There is zero logic to pets/ pet owners/ being rational. Not that I don’t like animals: but there is no logic with some owners whatsoever.

[eldar]

austinsmirk said:

I pointed out in another thread how we culled 100’000’s of pets in ww2 as of course feeding your family is more important than a cat. That went down well.

This was in the context of climate change and the impact of ( I assume billions) of pointless domestic animals must have to the planet.

Look at that knob: pen farthing rescuing dogs from Afghanistan whilst children, women and men are left to die etc. Brilliant: so some worthy individual can tell literally everyone they ever meet “ oh it’s a rescue dog from Afghanistan don’t ya know”. Aren’t I such a great person.

Because there’s no dogs in kennels here needing a home I guess ?

There is zero logic to pets/ pet owners/ being rational. Not that I don’t like animals: but there is no logic with some owners whatsoever.

Quite someone posted they'd kill people rather than a dog.

[46and2]

Sometimes I give my dog half a Bonio, she knows its not a full Bonio.

[Murph7355]

I suspect it's got a lot to do with the awkward relationship this country has with perceived money and class.

[roger.mellie]

Condi said:

What is it which causes people to get so excited about "some" animal rights, and not others? Why does "the mob" (aka C list celebs etc) hound some people and not others?

10 days ago (or whatever it was) the Daily Mail ran a headline story about someone kicking a horse and slapping it across the face. The girl in the video was given death threats and suspended from her job.

Today, 2/3rds of the page down on the same webpage there is a story about Chinese officials killing a pet dog by hitting it in the head with a crowbar. The reason given - their owner was in quarantine for Covid (although not positive). No "mob justice", not C list celebs on twitter, not headline news.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10204173/...

So, why is the death of a dog killed by crowbar a story 2/3rds of the way down the page, yet the kick of a horse worthy of headline news? I genuinely don't get it. Animal rights are important, but if the energy input was proportionate to the act, then maybe more animals might actually be saved.

We need to separate mob reactions from individual’s concerns. That’ll partly answer the question.

Another part is modern click bait.

Don’t have the solution to the problem but I’m pretty sure you don’t know anyone who’s really as worked up as the headlines imply on any story.