What comes to mind when I say moral blind spots? Abortion if you’re a conservative? Gay rights if you’re a liberal? But how can anything be “blind” if half the country is talking about it?
Mahatma Gandhi”” viewed by many (including Martin Luther King Jr.) as one of the greatest moral leaders of the 20th century ”” opined that the moral fiber of a society is best gauged by how we treat our animals. So as a Baptist preacher who is interested in the morality of my country, I decided to check us out. What I found has alarmed me. Worse still is the fact that so few of us are talking about it. Eureka. A moral blind spot.
Let’s start with the animals we profess to love: our pets. Many of us cherish our dogs, cats or other critters and consider them part of the family. We spare no expense when caring for them. Others of us just skirt by, particularly once the novelty of owning a pet wears off. Owner complacency becomes indifference; indifference becomes neglect. One of the saddest outcomes is a dog that is chained and left in the backyard. A tethered dog lives in utter misery without physical or mental stimulation. Owner neglect on a much larger scale results in 3 million to 4 million dogs and cats being euthanized each year. That’s about 10,000 per day. Much of this results from pet owners simply failing to spay or neuter their animals. With free and discounted spay/neuter opportunities galore, that’s inexcusable.
I would say abortion is a moral blind spot for liberals!
They don’t see that it is killing of real human beings.
And I think we ought to concentrate on stopping the killing of the smallest and most innocent of human beings before we start to get ourselves worked up about the cats and dogs.
Sure, treat the ones you have decently. But I think it is a sign of real moral blindness for people to get all soft and teary about the plight of animals while they are indifferent to babies of 19 weeks gestation being ripped limb from limb in the womb!
A dog is a rat is a child. That’s the ‘learned’ view. Equivalence all ’round. I prefer the addage, “A bean is a tomato is a cow is a fish. They are all tasty and nutritious food given to us by God for our use.”
That said, there certainly is no place for sadism in dealing with animals. We thank God for food. Gratuitous cruelty is blasphemy.