A woman in Pennsylvania has been charged with cruelty to animals when some concerned eBay shoppers reported her for listing "gothic kittens" that had been pierced through their ears, on their tails and even through their scruff on the backs of their necks. Some of their tails fell off or had to be amputated because the piercings cut off the flow of blood. When asked why she did this, the woman selling the kittens said she "thought it would be neat." The kittens were removed from the woman's home, but are not available for adoption yet as they are "evidence" in the case against the woman.
Now, I agree that what this woman did was wrong. I'm sure she had absolutely no training, no thought to safety and no concern for the pain it caused the kittens. But I do find the outcry against this woman interesting when the docking of puppy ears and tails is still practiced in this country as standard procedure for show animals, and it's purely cosmetic just like the kittens' ears. And have you ever seen a bunch of sheep on a farm with short tails? They're not born that way - lamb tails are tied off to purposely cut off the circulation and encourage the excess to die and drop off. So why do we condemn one person while turning a blind eye to hundreds for doing basically the same thing?
What do you think? Weigh in on the subject by commenting below!
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Comments
people pierce their newborn babies’ ears without consideration to their pain- and if piercing ears is criminal then so should the more inhumane practices of chopping off puppy tails!
i think if vets wanted to train for piercing so that it would be safe for pets, then they would make a lot of money
i think this is one of the dumbest things i have heard people do in a long time… i saw something about this on a local website and i think its absolutely ridiculous that a living breathing human being knowing what pain feels like can do such painful things to an innocent creature… u cannot compare this to piercing a babies ears cuz u know by 10 yrs old ur daughter is gonna want her ears pierced… when the he** is your kitten/ cat gonna ask for that… i feel like this is something u should hafta talk to ur children about, not grown adults… GROW UP!
I think the cat owner and the SPCA both don’t know what they are doing. “If you drive an appliance through the skin of a live animal, especially without anesthesia…you’re hurting an animal. It’s painful. It’s animal cruelty.” well that is exactly what is done to insert an ID chip into a pets’ neck, and in the case of dogs it’s claimed that they hardly notice it! By the way selling live animals on eBay isn’t allowed.
If you drive an appliance through the skin of a live animal, (especially without anesthesia)…you’re hurting an animal. It’s painful. It’s animal cruelty.
I’m not defending the lady who pierced the kittens at all, there are a number of problems that arose from her misguided ambition, but at the same time the SPCA really didn’t think this though very well other than to assume people would feel sorry for the kittens, and then donate to the SPCA.
The cultural norms of society (and who is in charge), is what makes some modifications to pets acceptable, not the driving of an appliance through the skin, hurt tissue, or pain. It’s perfectly allowable to bring your dog to have its’ tail docked (cut off) purely for aesthetic reasons because it’s fashionable (for example poodles have twisty tails that are supposed to be cut off!)
The SPCA is only allowed to deal with domesticated animals but will not interfere with neutering and docking sheep without anesthetic (which is a normal procedure) because they’d get very little media attention (and severe resistance from ranchers). The SPCA won’t pull any punches with dogs or cats because the cruelty (ignorance?) is likely to bring donations from well-meaning cat lovers.
The SPCA is playing the same numbers game that PETA is. According to Penn and Teller’s show (BullSh!t
(Continuted)
The SPCA is playing the same numbers game that PETA is. According to Penn and Teller’s show (BullSh!t
PETA took in 2103 animals, and euthanized 1,325 of them (video on YouTube)! PETA’s headquarters had such an overload of in-house euthanized animals (actually killing a perfectly healthy animal just because you don’t have the room for it is murder, no?) that several PETA employees were picked up by the police for dumping animal bodies in other people’s dumpsters without permission! The difference between the local pound and these animal rights groups isn’t in the percentage of animals adopted, but by how much they profit from exploiting animals that were treated badly. I advocate against supporting corporate pounds like PETA and the SPCA in favor of supporting local efforts that don’t have “non-profit” CEO’s taking home giant paychecks for killing 75% of the animals they claim to “rescue”.
The animal rights movement is slanted to cater to those who only want a superficial understanding of what is going on, and as such it is not made up of rational people. SPCA officers are very often gun owners that do volunteer work for the SPCA so they can earn the right to carry a concealed handgun- compare that to the worldview of the average animal lover!
Now that I’ve made my point can whomever took my foreskin please return it?
How about the branding of cattle as well? or the tattooing of the inside of the ears for ID purposes? I don’t agree with modifying anythings body w/o their permission. I didn’t pierce my daughter’s ears until she asked for it, then I explained that it was going to hurt and it would take time to heal. When she was on the piercers chair I asked her again if she was sure. Then after the first ear was pierced I asked her again. She was 2 at the time and she is now 5 and still has pierced ears. I believe that is the correct procedure for getting children’s ears pierced (just like any other piercing/tattoo you should be able to make an informed decision) and would like to see more people do that and until we can communicate with animals, leave them the way they are born.
I get the point about piercing babies etc, but if the babies ears fell off it out be a different story, no?
I have some very mixed feelings on this.
I have nothing good to say for the SPCA or PETA. As another has said, their actions are rarely consistent and their positions appear ill considered at best.
I grew up rural and have cared for a variety of animals in a variety of settings. There are no clear cut calls.
There is, however, a difference between what I’ll call “husbandry” or “handling” of animals and the indecent cruelty of this piercing story.
There is a certain amount of “honor” I hold toward animals. I have no problem with killing animals for food, but I would not have them suffer unnecessarily in that. All life requires the death of other life to continue.
I don’t have an issue with, for example, the Asians who were charged because they used dogs for food in a recent case. In their culture that’s fine. They were not going out of their way to be cruel to the creatures.
I would not, and they did not, light a cat’s tail on fire “for fun”. Or toss a kitten across two lanes of traffic to “see if it would make it back”.
I have put “road struck” animals out of their misery. Yes, there are more humane ways to do so, but I weighed the suffering of the animal while it was transported against ending the suffering which was inevitable in any case.
I wouldn’t dock a dog’s ears or pierce a cat for cosmetic reasons. For my health and safety and that of others, a horse I’ve had was gelded. Very different things.
There are fundamental differences between these things and that should be pretty clear to the world. If not, I’ll help explain.
And, yes, I’m with the fellow who wants his lost foreskin.