upi.com— SAN ANTONIO, June 16 (UPI) -- Two security guards in Texas rescued a flea-bitten kitten from an unpleasant death on the railroad tracks at the hands of a young couple.
Jun 17, 2007View in Crawl 4
@r3thsp3kt (#7243740)I completely agree with everything you said, in a way. But is it that they "understand that we give them life and shelter, more easily than can be gotten in the wild" (paraphrasing)? Or do they even understand that there IS a "wild"? They will always have that instinct, but how do my two housecats (sisters), born to another housecat, never "in the wild" EVER understand that my giving them food and shelter and love is anything more than they would expect in "the wild"? Or do they instead see ME as their "protector?" They are of ultimate innocence, like young children, that just don't "get" what the real world really is, because they're thrown into our world, without a choice. And when they don't have the ability to reason, what choice do they have?My cats get outside, they don't go far, are obviously very intrigued, but they trust that no matter what, they can always come back. And that's all they know. They wil always have that natural killer instinct, but I can't say that my two kitties would be able to survive in the wild now, unless they absolutely had no choice. And if you have pets, cats or dogs (moreso dogs), you can honestly see that trust in their eyes. If you haven't ever seen that, then I'm sorry for you. Because if you're willing to look, it's there.And yeah, like has been said, if my kitties were 10 times the size and could, they might probably rip my throat out and eat me like a gazelle. That is one of the very special things about cats. Maybe it takes a certain human personality to really respect a feline and the seeming "not give a s**t" personality...but my overall point is they trust us, because they have no choice in the matter, but still hopefully live a somewhat fulfilling life, because as "owners" we are given that ultimate responsibility. To make sure no matter what, that they're happy. And if you can't accept that and fulfill that basic need of trust, then they should be let go into the wild to figure it out for themselves. I don't see why our "free will" should be any different than theirs. Because in the end, they're all just "our slaves?" Because they don't have the capacity to think like us, they don't deserve life to be as good as ours? I say that's bulls**t.
i both agree and disagree on many points:whether or not people are capable of understanding why they are being tortured or killed is debatable; for example, they might have an intellectual capacity to understand motivations, but an inability to comprehend the shear magnitude and inhumanity needed to do it. but lets say a person is about to be tortured, and they understand perfectly why its happening, and even has a capacity to empathise with them the person putting them through it. The premise that this is preferable to not understanding is also very debatable and highly subjective. Here are some reasons people kill each other:- revenge- different religion- mental insanity / antisocial, etc- strategic- act of passionI might be projecting a bit here, but all of these exemplify a sense of senselessness. They're petty, not necessary. Now would you rather die or be tortured knowing that its happening for senseless, petty, backwards, psychotic reasons? Or would you rather be confused and not know whats happening? I would choose the latter."In my opinion, there's nothing more despicable than taking advantage of another species" again I both agree and disagree. Actually i kinda agree BECAUSE I disagree, a bit weird, but hear me out. I think intentionally inflicting harm on a human being is morally more reprehensible than inflicting it on an animal, for all the obvious reasons: humans are sentient, intelligent, cognitive, would be more missed, have potential for greatness, have more dignity, etc. Obviously you may disagree with these points, but I'm just going to assert them. HOWEVER, having said that, purprosely inflicting harm on an animal is just about on-par in my opinion, because animals have some of these same qualities to a lesser degree, and also feel pain, AND the type of person that is capable of abusing/torturing/killing an animal is also the same sort of person that may be willing to eventually do the same to a person."No animal, human or not, deserves to be treated that way. Maybe some humans "deserve it", but what did that kitty ever do to anyone?" Its true that animals have intrinsic inosence because they act on instinct and are not sentient and intelligent, but human life has more value percisely because humans have those things, whereas animals do not. Humans have more dignity, than animals, we are, from a naturalist perspective, the most superior biologically and the most evolved and have the most sophisticated mental capacites known to exist in the universe (for now), and from a theistic perspective, humans have souls (if you're a religious person and thats what you believe)."The human race still has a long way to go." no one can argue that"because every other species in the world "gets it" on a level we will NEVER understand" i dunno about that one, they dont really 'get' anything, they're just evolutionary survivors of natural selection, behaving with primitive insticts, and only in some special cases with evidance of proto-altruism. You could just as easily say that our behavior is the result of the same evolutionary process that guides animals, and what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom also developed the same way, yatta yatta
Closed AccountJun 18, 2007
Kujo and are you dumb. Part of the fun of cats is the fact that they would kill you and eat you if they were big enough.
loong1984Jun 18, 2007
I cant understand the couple, the planet is crazy now.Wan2 cay
simplejoe79Jun 18, 2007
calling the couple 'fools of first order' would be an understatement....what they did was plain ridiculous...
thefaithfulJun 18, 2007
To those two guys; please come "rescue" the cats who hang around my neighborhood so I don't have to deal with them and the mess they make.
captainjack69Jun 18, 2007
They say with "Freedom Comes Great Responsibility".... With morons like this around I say it takes great restraint.
phattymcgee27Jun 19, 2007
@r3thsp3kt (#7243740)I completely agree with everything you said, in a way. But is it that they "understand that we give them life and shelter, more easily than can be gotten in the wild" (paraphrasing)? Or do they even understand that there IS a "wild"? They will always have that instinct, but how do my two housecats (sisters), born to another housecat, never "in the wild" EVER understand that my giving them food and shelter and love is anything more than they would expect in "the wild"? Or do they instead see ME as their "protector?" They are of ultimate innocence, like young children, that just don't "get" what the real world really is, because they're thrown into our world, without a choice. And when they don't have the ability to reason, what choice do they have?My cats get outside, they don't go far, are obviously very intrigued, but they trust that no matter what, they can always come back. And that's all they know. They wil always have that natural killer instinct, but I can't say that my two kitties would be able to survive in the wild now, unless they absolutely had no choice. And if you have pets, cats or dogs (moreso dogs), you can honestly see that trust in their eyes. If you haven't ever seen that, then I'm sorry for you. Because if you're willing to look, it's there.And yeah, like has been said, if my kitties were 10 times the size and could, they might probably rip my throat out and eat me like a gazelle. That is one of the very special things about cats. Maybe it takes a certain human personality to really respect a feline and the seeming "not give a s**t" personality...but my overall point is they trust us, because they have no choice in the matter, but still hopefully live a somewhat fulfilling life, because as "owners" we are given that ultimate responsibility. To make sure no matter what, that they're happy. And if you can't accept that and fulfill that basic need of trust, then they should be let go into the wild to figure it out for themselves. I don't see why our "free will" should be any different than theirs. Because in the end, they're all just "our slaves?" Because they don't have the capacity to think like us, they don't deserve life to be as good as ours? I say that's bulls**t.
superyounan1Jun 20, 2007
i both agree and disagree on many points:whether or not people are capable of understanding why they are being tortured or killed is debatable; for example, they might have an intellectual capacity to understand motivations, but an inability to comprehend the shear magnitude and inhumanity needed to do it. but lets say a person is about to be tortured, and they understand perfectly why its happening, and even has a capacity to empathise with them the person putting them through it. The premise that this is preferable to not understanding is also very debatable and highly subjective. Here are some reasons people kill each other:- revenge- different religion- mental insanity / antisocial, etc- strategic- act of passionI might be projecting a bit here, but all of these exemplify a sense of senselessness. They're petty, not necessary. Now would you rather die or be tortured knowing that its happening for senseless, petty, backwards, psychotic reasons? Or would you rather be confused and not know whats happening? I would choose the latter."In my opinion, there's nothing more despicable than taking advantage of another species" again I both agree and disagree. Actually i kinda agree BECAUSE I disagree, a bit weird, but hear me out. I think intentionally inflicting harm on a human being is morally more reprehensible than inflicting it on an animal, for all the obvious reasons: humans are sentient, intelligent, cognitive, would be more missed, have potential for greatness, have more dignity, etc. Obviously you may disagree with these points, but I'm just going to assert them. HOWEVER, having said that, purprosely inflicting harm on an animal is just about on-par in my opinion, because animals have some of these same qualities to a lesser degree, and also feel pain, AND the type of person that is capable of abusing/torturing/killing an animal is also the same sort of person that may be willing to eventually do the same to a person."No animal, human or not, deserves to be treated that way. Maybe some humans "deserve it", but what did that kitty ever do to anyone?" Its true that animals have intrinsic inosence because they act on instinct and are not sentient and intelligent, but human life has more value percisely because humans have those things, whereas animals do not. Humans have more dignity, than animals, we are, from a naturalist perspective, the most superior biologically and the most evolved and have the most sophisticated mental capacites known to exist in the universe (for now), and from a theistic perspective, humans have souls (if you're a religious person and thats what you believe)."The human race still has a long way to go." no one can argue that"because every other species in the world "gets it" on a level we will NEVER understand" i dunno about that one, they dont really 'get' anything, they're just evolutionary survivors of natural selection, behaving with primitive insticts, and only in some special cases with evidance of proto-altruism. You could just as easily say that our behavior is the result of the same evolutionary process that guides animals, and what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom also developed the same way, yatta yatta