Animals matter. their life matter.

[darkangel218]

Not because we use them, but because they have the right to live here just as much as we do.

And anyone who thinks animals are just for us "to use and abuse" is a pos.

That's all.

[LordGlenconner]

1. Rabid evangelicals think that way

And it disgusts me.

[darkangel218]

2. Many more others think the same, unfortunately.

[blkmusclmachine]

5. "evangelicals think"

That's where you're wrong, right there.

[darkangel218]

6. Im not wrong about anything.

Animals deserve life same as you and I do.

[Liberal Veteran]

11. Even the guinea worm?

[darkangel218]

12. Even them, we invade/ co habbit with them

We kill wild gueese , they invade us.

[mike dub]

17. DUzy!!!!!

N/t

[blkmusclmachine]

3. ,

,

[darkangel218]

4. What is that suppose to mean?

[msanthrope]

16. +1. nt

[sadoldgirl]

7. I would like to enlarge this a bit

All of nature matters, more than that it deserves our respect,

which we seem to have lost. If we need to "use" it then let us

do so with the appropriate respect as the native Americans did.

[darkangel218]

9. +1

I couldn't agree more.
( I posted the OP because of the anaconda abuse on Discovery. )
All nature matter. We are only guests. Some may say we are just"parasites".

[bemildred]

10. +1. nt

[2naSalit]

14. That's what my

elders taught me!

[BrotherIvan]

18. +1

Indigenous peoples all over the world never thought of themselves as apart from nature, much less above nature. Somewhere, our thinking became deranged and we view the natural world as somehow different from ourselves. We believe that we are no longer animals. That somehow our technology and our civilizations are the best thing that ever happened to the earth. We will find out shortly how wrong we are.

[Derek V]

8. Yes!

HELL yes! K! AND! R!

[CrawlingChaos]

13. K&R.. You are absolutely right, of course

But daring to say so reliably brings out the sickest, vilest side of human nature, as already demonstrated in this thread.

[darkangel218]

15. They will always make up excuses for the exploitation and abuse of fellow Earth cohabitants

It was for a TV show ratings, it was for target practice, it was for "food" ( like there was not enough meat from farm animals, that they had to hunt and kill perfectly healthy, self sustainable, wild ones), it was for fur ( Fuking rejects!!!!), it was for safety - uh huh! What are you doing roaming their territory, keep building up cheap subdivisions in their habitat???

I'm so sick of those excuses...

[hunter]

19. I believe it's possible to respect nature and treat food animals with great respect.

My wife is vegetarian and I'm mostly vegetarian. Nevertheless we have dogs as family members, all of them from the animal shelter and I'm not going make our dogs be vegetarians or get too upset when they kill mice, rats, or gophers. (Our oldest dog leaves rats alone. She remembers when our youngest kid kept pet rats. The newer dogs kill wild rats whenever they can, and unlike cats, they do not "play" with their food. That's their nature.

My mom's family are cattle ranchers and my dad's family were California Dairy people. My dad loves to fish. Fish was a major source of protein in our family when I was a kid. One of my nieces is an agriculture major in university. Her interest is dairy goats mostly. She believes goat meat, milk, and cheeses will displace dairy cows to some extent as the climate becomes more unpredictable.

I think some animals are intelligent enough that they ought to enjoy near-human legal protections. The great apes (chimps, gorillas, orangs, etc...), many cetaceans, and many birds belong in this category.

But even invasive species like feral pigs in California deserve our respect, even when we allow them to be freely hunted.

Hunting for food is one thing, hunting for "sport" or "trophy" or just because some sick person just likes to kill animals, is quite another.

[GGJohn]

20. We hunt all our food, won't buy that store meat, too many chemicals,

but we aslo consider it a sport, not in the sense you may think, but we enjoy the sport of tracking the animal and taking it down with one shot or arrow.
I don't condone "trophy" hunting, those POS's can take a quick train to hell for all I care.

[jimlup]

21. I agree but make an exception for mosquitos

Those vampires don't ...

[Vattel]

22. I agree but there is a huge difference between taking the life of a flea or clam, for example,

and taking the life of a dog or a pig. Based on the neurology, we have every reason to think that the dog and pig have way more to lose by dying than the flea or the clam.