Sympathetic Imaginations

In reading the story of Homer and Ann, I was reminded of my dog Maco (on the left) who died a little over a year ago. To me, Maco was absolutely one of the best dogs. He was the first dog I had and the first one that I have known so well to pass away. Because regrettably I wasn't with him when he died, I often catch myself thinking about what he felt like when it happened. At first those thoughts destroyed me because my guilt was too much, but after a few months I realized that we gave him the best life we could and like Homer, he lived a very eventful life. A quote that struck a chord with me was Homer assessing that his owner didn't "...understand that dogs get old" (p. 807) I can relate to this feeling completely and I'm sure many people can as well. Maco only lived to be 10 years old, which to me isn't long at all, but I'd like to think he felt as though he lived a long life. No matter if I am projecting, I know it has helped me become more compassionate towards all animals and humans.
At times I wonder why people find it so hard to project personalities onto other animals besides their own. I assume it's easier to project onto an animal that lives in your house, but I feel that people would benefit from an exercise similar to that of the one exhibited in Homer and Ann's story. On page 565, Adam Smith suggests "as we have no immediate experience of what other men feel, we can form no idea of the manner in which they are effected, but by conceiving what we ourselves should feel in the like situation." At least for me, by putting yourself in someone else's shoes and pondering what their life must be like it is harder to think of them negatively. Like Homer and Ann's story, Calvin's Story is successful because the narrator is Calvin the dog, we experience what Calvin feels while at the pound. While a human visiting the pound may feel saddened by what they are seeing, Calvin, or any animal waiting to be adopted, has it worse. If given the choice, no animal wants to spend their life in a cage.
Dogs love unconditionally, like Homer the dog said in The Odyssey, "If there is one word a dog has the right to use it is [love]" (p.807). I remember a time when I accidentally slammed the door on Maco's tail and not a minute later, he was giving me kisses to comfort me instead of the other way around. Dogs are loyal and selfless and deserve our love. So many dogs are not given the chance to bond with a family and this needs to change.

"We sympathise with what we see rather than what we hear..." (p.565). I'm sure that many carnists are aware of where their meat comes from and the process in which the animals are slaughtered, but the strongest way to truly comprehend the needless torture animals go through every day is by experiencing it or even just by watching a movie like Earthlings. It's much harder to ignore the suffering when one has bore witness to it. While I am not suggesting that everyone in the world become vegetarian, I do hope that people who choose to eat meat recognize the animal's sacrifice. I know sometimes, I believe ignorance is bliss, but it isn't fair to ignore what is happening each day.
"The sympathy that people might naturally feel towards a being who is suffering, coupled with reasoned moral principles, would probably cause most to object to these institutions. While it is not possible for everyone directly to experience the effect of each and every one of their actions, that is no reason not to try" (p.571).

Earthlings Part 2

Interestingly enough, by part 2 of Earthlings my anger was more apparent to me than my sadness. I am furious at the idea that there are people in this world who could torture these animals as if they were nothing. It was disgusting to watch as men rubbed chili powder into the eyes of the India cows and slaughtered them in front of each other. I cannot image the fear those cows felt as they watched these evil people hack their dull blades into the other cows knowing they were next and there was no escaping. To have so little regard for the lives of other living creatures, I will never understand.
This section of Earthlings covered clothing, hunting, animal testing and entertainment.

India cows are purchased from poor families in India "who sell them only after assurance that the animals will live out their lives on farms"(p.351). It is sickening to know that families are being lied to about the cows' fate. In my opinion, it is important for people to know where their clothing truly comes from and the traumatizing slaughter the india cows face just so that humans can wear their skin. Equally as repulsive is the mass capture and killing of defenseless wildlife for their fur. According to Earthlings, "over 100 million wild animals are murdered for their pelts every year, 25 million in the United States alone" (p.353). The images of the animals being skinned alive and left for dead left me reeling. It is devastating to know that fur can be so important to some that they would ignore the incredibly brutal killing of so many animals. I think that people in general find it easier to live in ignorance than to comprehend the manner in which the animal they are wearing was tortured.

Hunting is definitely controversial, especially in a place where so much of it occurs. Personally, I don't see how shooting an animal is even considered a sport and it's amazing how young children begin hunting as well. I'm thankful that there are regulations in place, but I have no idea how strictly the regulations are followed. Earthlings states that "hunters kill over 200 million animals every year" (p.356). I have been told by countless friends and family the myth of fish feeling no pain. Earthlings asks to "consider that their sensory organs are highly developed, their nervous systems complex, and their nerve cells very similar to our own, and their responses to certain stimuli immediate and vigorous" (p.357). Fish do feel pain.

The cruelty behind the animal testing seen in Earthlings was remarkable. Although I do my best to stay clear from purchasing products that were tested on animals, it is virtually impossible with so many companies testing their inventions on innocent animals before the human trials regardless of the fact that  "results maintained on animals aren't necessarily applicable to humans." To combat animal testing people should be aware of what products were tested on animals. (PETA offers a large list of items to steer clear from)

As for the entertainment portion of the movie, I found the abuse to the elephants particularly alarming. The man who is screaming at Becky the elephant as though she should be able to understand his commands was infuriating. The man clearly enjoyed inflicting pain upon the poor animal, evident in his hollering and threats. It is unnatural for any animal to be doing insane stunts to entertain humans and they would not be doing them were it not for their fear of being punished.

The Starfish Story perfectly illustrates the notion that to save just one animal is making a difference. PETA suggests that the best thing we can do is "respect all species and their wonderful attributes and beauty" (p.414). Respecting all animals and sharing one's knowledge of the treatment of animals is essential to stoping animal cruelty.

Earthlings Part 1

I knew before class on Tuesday that I would definitely be crying through the majority of Part 1 of Earthlings. I had only seen clips of Earthlings before and just the few clips that I saw were enough to turn me vegetarian. Since our last class, I've been considering going vegan. I had no idea that dairy cows were milked to death and treated so horribly. Initially, the majority of the feelings I was recording were angry. I felt furious, unforgiving, agitated, heartsick, disgusted, and sickened throughout the entire first half of the movie. When the clip about the treatment of dairy cows came around, I felt a whole different set of emotions. I felt so guilty, ashamed of myself for thinking I was doing all I could by being vegetarian. Cows are my favorite animal and I had been fooling myself into believing all the commercials about happy dairy cows living in California, minding their own business and living a lush life every cow deserves were true. Instead I was assaulted with the images of a poor cow being drained and dragged out of its cramped stall to be made into fast food. I thought I would be disgusted with the people involved in the animal abuse, but by drinking their milk, I feel just as guilty. I don't think the movie Earthlings' goal was to turn the world vegan, perhaps the movie just serves as a reminder to be more conscientious of where exactly our food comes from and realize the suffering those animals endure. I was shocked at the amount of times the narrator noted that all the procedures done to the animals were done without an anesthetic. So many species of animals are being mutilated just so that the average American can consume an insane amount meat per day. One line from the movie illustrates just how unbelievable American's consumption of meat has become. "Americans currently consume as much chicken in a single day as they did in an entire year in 1930."(p.346) I researched exactly how much meat an average person eats a day, Huffington Post reported that Americans eat, "At least 12 ounces of meat per day, almost 50% more than the recommended daily amount."

I wasn't prepared to see the suffering pets endure. I love my dogs so much and to actually see those dogs and cats being euthanized and thrown into the garbage made me so sick I felt like I was going to throw up. It needs to be realized that animals "shall not be measured by man." (p.338) It is not for us to decide the worth of an animal. Too many people get a pet on a whim and refuse to neuter or spay them, but when caring for their pet becomes too difficult they abandon them. Earthlings reported that "An estimated 25 million animals become homeless every year." With 9 million dying on the streets and another 16 million being euthanized each year, I feel hopeless. It amazes me that "50% of the animals brought to shelters are turned in by their caretakers."(p.339) What kind of people are so cruel as to take on another innocent life to be responsible for and then leave them to die. I don't think this is something I will ever be able to make peace with.
By watching Earthlings, I will be more prepared to witness the conditions pets like the ones pictured in the video live in and do my best to get animals adopted. I am so grateful for the volunteers at Austin Pets Alive that work so hard to continue to keep Austin a "No-Kill" city.

In comparing animal abuse to the Holocaust, I was torn. I questioned whether a comparison could even be made, but reading David Sztybel's article changed that opinion. While I do believe that the life of a human obviously bears greater weight than the life of an animal, I was able to see parallels between the two. On p.364, Sztybel explained that "it is obviously not suggested here that anyone who is a speciesist is also a racist" and that "all this is truly being indicated...is that severe oppression is equally present on both sides of the comparison."  The Oxford English Dictionary defines speciesism as the "discrimination against or exploitation of certain animal species by human beings, based on an assumption of mankind's superiority"(p.399) and in looking back on the ethnic cleansing that has occurred in history, where people were most definitely treated like objects and abused because they were deemed inferior by a group of people, I wonder what it would take to have the world as a whole notice the obvious connections between racism and animal abuse and choose to value the life of all living beings.

My emotions during Earthlings : Agitated, heartsick, tearful, disgusted, sickened, nauseated, furious, unforgiving, repulsed, remorseful for drinking milk, enraged, mortified, vengeful, ashamed, angry, sorry, violent, and hopeless.

* I only used the words in the Course Anthology Vol.2 p.546 because it was harder than I expected to accurately express the emotions I was feeling during the movie.

This quote left me heartbroken:

"...dolphins never abandon wounded family members. Mothers and babies call out in distress as they are separated, hoisted up and dragged off...soon to be mercilessly hacked to death. These are benign and innocent beings...and they deserve better." (p.350)

Ethical Challenges

In the beginning of filling out the activities, I was skeptical of the exercises in Ethical Challenges being of any use to me. Activities #1 and #2 were basic, I appreciated that it was specified that it was okay "to include more than five or to choose fewer or to add other values". It made the process of ranking MY values, very personal. Activity #2 made me realize that although for the most part I do treat people the way I want to be treated, I expect more from people than I am currently giving.

Once I got to to Activity #3, I started to see why these activites may be important. I had a hard time trying to find vices of deficiency and excess. For the virtue "honesty" the only vice of deficiency I could come up with was "liar" and "too open" for the vice of excess. I don't feel that I am necessarily a liar, nor do I feel that I am too open. But on Activity #1 I didn't rank honesty highly at all. This activity made me think about the different spectrums of being virtuous. 

Activity #5 was interesting, because I scored mostly in the middle for my variations in ethical intuitions. It also made me question the double-standards I hold people to. 

Activity #11 made me notice the relationship between ethics and law, economics, self-interest, religion, and opinion. For example, in my understanding, if a prisoner tells his attorney that he is guilty it is unethical for the attorney to represent him, but it is against the law for the attorney to implicate his client. For economics, it isn't illegal to make money, but it is if the means of making money happens to be against the law. 

Writing the card for Activity #14 made me think of the image of having an angel over my shoulder begging me to make the right decision. It was helpful because it could serve as a reminder the next time I overreact or expect too much from people. "Ethics would be a meaningless exercise if it weren't for free will" (Elliott, 14). I found this quote interesting, especially when Elliot claimed that "we all bring baggage from the past and have hidden motivations to our decisions." I was aware that people often project their own understanding of events on people, but for me it is hard to wrap my mind around the fact that no one but the person is really aware of their true motivations behind their actions. I assume that our leadership essay will allow us to contemplate our goals as future leaders as well as reflect on our priorities, possibly similar to the way the activities in Ethical Challenges have made me consider my responsibilities and whether they benefited me or if others.

My response to Activity #6:Roles and Conflicts of Commitment

Rank

1. Sister

2. Daughter

3. Student

4. Friend

5. Roommate

My response to Activity #7: Recognizing Conflicts of Commitment

It's difficult for me juggle being a good friend and being a good roommate. As a friend, I feel like it's my responsibility to be accepting and not judgmental but there have been instances where I can't be honest with my friend/roommate because I don't want to upset her. For example our opposite conceptions of tidiness didn't bother me as a friend because as a friend I accept her, but as a roommate I like my room to more organized. It took me a long time to vocalize my opinion, but because she is also a good friend, she understood my predicament and has since organized her side of the room. Compromise was key to solving that conflict.

Overall, I enjoyed Ethical Challenges. I don't necessarily think I wouldn't have come to the conclusions I had come to on my own, but I also don't spend enough time thinking about ethics in relation to the decisions I make and the people I try and protect. On page 30, Elliot asks the question "What makes some entities worthy of moral protection and other things not?" She uses the ethically unsound example of arranging the killing of another child in order to access a needed organ for her son to further her argument that "being in the moral community means that every individual has the same basics," and while her role-related responsibility is to take care of her son, every child has equal rights to life. I believe that this argument can cross over to ethics in relation to many things, especially the treatment of animals.

Ethical Challenges has left me with many things to think about.