Some people....

[conuly]

Pigeon Guys Face Tough Times: ‘Who Has the Money? Who Has the Roof?’

This article has a passing reference to animal sacrifice. It's amazing how many people who don't care about pigeons at all are up in arms about this in the comments, and how few care at all that there is also a mention of hunting pigeons for sport in the very same sentence. They think they care about animal rights, but the way they spend their focus looks an awful lot like racism. As for me, I don't think the pigeon cares if it ends up on a plate at a fancy restaurant, in the belly of a falcon - or on an altar. I just don't get where these people, none of whom are probably vegetarians, get off saying boo about sport hunting but going on and on and on about the barbarity and cruelty and savagery (their words!) of a religious tradition that isn't even named. For all they know, it's quicker than whatever happens to chickens in the slaughterhouse.

The article is interesting, anyway.

Comments

[lilysea]

I find it awfully racist how people get super upset about dogs being eaten, but the exact same people are happy for pigs [which are just as intelligent as dogs] to be eaten.

Personally, I'm vegetarian, but I have no issue with other people eating dogs or pigs, altho my preference is that people eat fish/chicken wherever possible, as fish/chicken are the meats with the lowest carbon footprint.

[conuly]

I find it awfully racist how people get super upset about dogs being eaten, but the exact same people are happy for pigs [which are just as intelligent as dogs] to be eaten.

Yup. Also "I could never be one of those [stupid/bad/primitive] religions that don't let you eat certain foods", nevermind that the speaker is always from a culture that doesn't eat lots of foods that much of the world thinks is okay. (I mean, every culture doesn't eat things that other people think is okay, but out of the list of potentially edible animals, people in the West sure eat a very small subset of them, and a smaller subset of animal parts.)

as fish/chicken are the meats with the lowest carbon footprint.

I'm pretty sure that's actually insects, see above "foods we don't eat". And people are a lot less likely to keep insects as pets than fish or chickens (which would of course be why so many of us think there's something specially bad about eating cats or dogs or guinea pigs or even rabbits, which are eaten by some people in the West.)

[thekumquat]

See also the UK eternal fox-hunting debate.
Pretty much everyone accepts foxes are vermin who kill chickens and other animals for fun as well as food, scaring ewes into early birth, and generally there's too many since wolves went extinct.

Most of them agree that foxes need culling. Some debate over whether tracking a fox then shooting it is significantly less stressful than a gang of dogs attacking or not, mostly so ill-informed as to be useless.

But god forbid anyone should make use of the dogs running about to have fun chasing the dogs on horseback.

[conuly]

I would say that there's a distinct difference between the fox hunting debate and this specific instance where the commenters overwhelmingly overlooked the mention of sport hunting of pigeons to focus on the animal sacrifice angle.

[dorchadas]

This reminds me a lot of the furor every year over kapparot.

[conuly]

Yup. Unless the animals are being particularly neglected or maltreated, is it really that different from any other slaughtering operation?