People like to think we live in a civilized society; after all, we no longer condone slavery, human sacrifice, cannibalism, lethal gladiator games or a host of other outdated cruelties. But in reality, we’re living in a time when the accepted treatment of non-human animals has never been more morally schizophrenic.
Take, for example, the following excerpt from a UK Mirror article about a criminal case of animal abuse that could easily be confused with a perfectly “legal” bird hunt…
Locked up: Yob shot dead 18 ducks and posted pictures of rampage on Facebook
The cruel 18-year-old went on the rampage up a canal bank and when caught told police he only killed the birds ‘for a bit of fun’
12 Jan 2013
A lout who shot dead 18 ducks and posted pictures of their corpses on Facebook was locked up for eight weeks yesterday.
Cruel 18-year-old Michael Prince went on the rampage up a canal bank and when caught told police he only killed the birds ‘for a bit of fun.’
The sick gunman caused armed police to be deployed to the scene to reel him in and his friend who was also armed with a gun at the waterside.
Animal welfare bosses described Prince’s actions as ‘senseless cruelty’ as he was sent to a young offenders’ institution for eight weeks.
Prince and his pal shot birds while others they had just targeted lay flapping their wings in agony and even took aim at horses in nearby fields in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.
Cops managed to catch the brainless teen when he stupidly posted photographs of his macabre exploits on the internet. …
A “bit of fun” eh? That sounds eerily reminiscent of a case of senseless animal cruelty I covered in an earlier blog post entitled, “Just Out For a Bit of Fun.”
It’s good to know that crimes like these are prosecuted (though the punishments for crimes against animals are seldom more than a slap on the wrist). The question is how does the shooting of ducks “for a bit of fun” differ from the legalized blasting of birds in the name of sport? Depending on the species, the shooting of 18 ducks can be well within the “bag limit” set by local “game” departments. And leaving ducks winged and wounded is standard practice for the average bird hunter.
