re: #384 allegro

My mom was raised on a dairy farm during the great depression when animals were food. Period. She couldn’t imagine having an animal of any kind inside the house as a pet - it just wasn’t done. They were animals. She was certainly never cruel to any - well besides killing one when needed to feed the family. In fact, I never saw anyone go to greater effort to treat and save a sick animal. This was the way she was raised and the beliefs she grew up with.

Then she gave birth to me. Heh. I carried in any kind of critter I could catch and begged multiple times a day for a dog. My parents finally got me a spaniel when I was about 8 years old. That spaniel was soon inside the house and a part of the family. It took a lot of mind changing to get my mom to accept this whole new mindset. She was successfully “rehabilitated.”

I’m just saying that cultural influences are powerful and not everyone grows up with similar attitudes. They can, however, change.

But there’s a world of difference here. Your mother respected her animals, even those she raised for food.

There’s no way that I can believe that anyone living in today’s age, with what we know about dogs particularly, that anyone who has spent any time with a dog understands that it feels anguish and pain, you can’t tell me Vick didn’t know it. He either didn’t care or he’s a sociopath. And being raised in it isn’t an excuse.

He certainly did serve his time, but that doesn’t make him a man of fine moral standing.