Today's misanthrope of the week is "The Bunny Undertaker," Elizabeth Carlisle.
Elizabeth Carlisle was arrested after posting a photo of herself with two dead rabbits on her Facebook profile.
According to reports the girl drowned the rabbits after they became injured during a fight at the PetLand store where she worked.
Unlike me most of you are sickened by the thought of such an event.
I find your response curious. And perhaps immoral.
I am made curious by those people who seem to get worked up over the death of a couple of rabbits more than they do over the fact that millions of African children will starve to death this year.
Take this comment from the Weekly Vice as illustrative of my point:
THIS outrages me. I am so pissed over this! I want to drown the girl and her father myself! The poor bunnies could have been taken to a vet. Her gleefully drowning them is unforgivable! People who harm defenseless animals will rot in HELL!
I can't recall ever getting a comment like that when I discussed starving children in Africa.
No one ever gets in my face sticking up for starving children, but I have gotten into bar fights with animal lovers over my opinions.
I once received a death threat from a PETA member after I posted Michael Vick as one of my "heroes" on MySpace.
People (like my ex wife) be like "them Africans must have had it coming. It's they fault. Karma and shit." [ actual conversation not verbatim]
I admit I don't like animal lovers.
I won't hide my opinion. I don't like animal lovers. I have no idea why anyone would ever be an animal lover. I just don't get it. I think having an animal for a "companion" is stupid.
Animal lovers are always doing things that annoy me too. They unleash their animals all the time. Those dogs chase and bite me.
In addition, Animal Lovers waste BILLIONS of dollars on their companions. The dress them up in stupid costumes. They talk to them in baby talk. They tell me pointless stories about the alleged "cuteness" of said animals.
I don't mean to be dismissive about animal cruelty. But if you equate animal life with human life then you are misanthropic and possibly suffer from psychopathology.
You will assume I am bringing up the rabbit killer to sound outrageous. I am not. I only bring up the "rabbit undertaker" because it is the only way I know to get you to think about morality.
(Philosophically speaking) you have no interest in morality.*
*It occurred to me that this section was going to get very pedantic so I stopped.
Instead try reading the blog I found where the (female) blogger "kills animals as part of work... also... wild animals that are just in a lot of pain. Sometimes I have to euthanize them. I decided to record each animal I euthanize here."
OK, I will try to write something here.
Some things to think about:
Allow me to anticipate one of your objections:
Animal cruelty is correlated with violence against humans.
I agree. And that is the ONE reason we should watch people who do creepy shit to animals. Sometimes they are just working their way up to killing folks like you and me.
Is she Guilty?
Is she guilty of having a sick sense of humor? You bet. But so am I. So are you. Why else would you read this blog?
If Elizabeth had been on a farm and killed the rabbits and then chopped them in stew she would not be going to jail. Other than taking a photo after the event I can't say that her method for euthanizing injured animals was all that terrible. (Animals often suffocate to death at the vet when they get put down at the vet.)
Without the smile she may have been considered a hero.
But she enjoyed causing pain.
We should worry that she enjoyed inflicting pain on something. But does that mean we should grieve for animals?
Maybe we should grieve for her sanity. And we should worry about a society that claims to be moral, but actually operates more on the level of disgust than an informed ethical rationality.
*By the way fried Rabbit is very delicious. My grandparents (back in Oklahoma) used to go hunting for bunnies all the time. The kids never wanted the fried rabbit that the adults shot and ate. We always wanted fried chicken. I guess because as kids we figured chickens had nothing to do with Easter Eggs. Kids are stupid.
I find your response curious. And perhaps immoral.
I am made curious by those people who seem to get worked up over the death of a couple of rabbits more than they do over the fact that millions of African children will starve to death this year.
Take this comment from the Weekly Vice as illustrative of my point:
THIS outrages me. I am so pissed over this! I want to drown the girl and her father myself! The poor bunnies could have been taken to a vet. Her gleefully drowning them is unforgivable! People who harm defenseless animals will rot in HELL!
I can't recall ever getting a comment like that when I discussed starving children in Africa.
No one ever gets in my face sticking up for starving children, but I have gotten into bar fights with animal lovers over my opinions.
I once received a death threat from a PETA member after I posted Michael Vick as one of my "heroes" on MySpace.
People (like my ex wife) be like "them Africans must have had it coming. It's they fault. Karma and shit." [ actual conversation not verbatim]
I admit I don't like animal lovers.
I won't hide my opinion. I don't like animal lovers. I have no idea why anyone would ever be an animal lover. I just don't get it. I think having an animal for a "companion" is stupid.
Animal lovers are always doing things that annoy me too. They unleash their animals all the time. Those dogs chase and bite me.
In addition, Animal Lovers waste BILLIONS of dollars on their companions. The dress them up in stupid costumes. They talk to them in baby talk. They tell me pointless stories about the alleged "cuteness" of said animals.
I don't mean to be dismissive about animal cruelty. But if you equate animal life with human life then you are misanthropic and possibly suffer from psychopathology.
You will assume I am bringing up the rabbit killer to sound outrageous. I am not. I only bring up the "rabbit undertaker" because it is the only way I know to get you to think about morality.
(Philosophically speaking) you have no interest in morality.*
*It occurred to me that this section was going to get very pedantic so I stopped.
Instead try reading the blog I found where the (female) blogger "kills animals as part of work... also... wild animals that are just in a lot of pain. Sometimes I have to euthanize them. I decided to record each animal I euthanize here."
OK, I will try to write something here.
Some things to think about:
- Maybe you are just "disgusted" by what Beth did. You may not be so moral yourself.
- We need to think more about the relationship between "disgust" and "morality."
- You might be a bit of a hypocrite if you like meat and wear leather pumps.
Allow me to anticipate one of your objections:
Animal cruelty is correlated with violence against humans.
I agree. And that is the ONE reason we should watch people who do creepy shit to animals. Sometimes they are just working their way up to killing folks like you and me.
Is she Guilty?
Is she guilty of having a sick sense of humor? You bet. But so am I. So are you. Why else would you read this blog?
If Elizabeth had been on a farm and killed the rabbits and then chopped them in stew she would not be going to jail. Other than taking a photo after the event I can't say that her method for euthanizing injured animals was all that terrible. (Animals often suffocate to death at the vet when they get put down at the vet.)
Without the smile she may have been considered a hero.
But she enjoyed causing pain.
We should worry that she enjoyed inflicting pain on something. But does that mean we should grieve for animals?
Maybe we should grieve for her sanity. And we should worry about a society that claims to be moral, but actually operates more on the level of disgust than an informed ethical rationality.
*By the way fried Rabbit is very delicious. My grandparents (back in Oklahoma) used to go hunting for bunnies all the time. The kids never wanted the fried rabbit that the adults shot and ate. We always wanted fried chicken. I guess because as kids we figured chickens had nothing to do with Easter Eggs. Kids are stupid.