alex_antonin: TST Antifascist (Default)
An outdoor adventure company recently slaughtered 100 dogs after not seeing the amount of business they expected. Why is that most people are appalled by the actions that this company took, but don't give a second thought to the number of cows, chickens or sheep that are killed every year on farms? Why do most people have different reactions depending on the animal?

Good question. I personally dislike dogs. But I'd love to find out what one tastes like as a steak or a burger.

I'm not just saying this to be shocking, either. I really would. I genuinely don't see what would be wrong with it. Chihuahuas were bred for meat, originally. (Hey, uh, "culture that bred Chihuahuas"? You did it wrong. Chihuahuas are small and scrawny and not worth much, meat-wise.) What's the difference between eating a dog and eating a cow? Only difference I can see is it's easier to feed a cow, because they eat plants. Although I suppose you could feed a dog roadkill and leftover bits of meat and stuff. As long as you don't feed them dog meat; cannibalism causes Mad Cow Disease and related diseases.

Cats, on the other hand... aside from being cute, I can't imagine they'd be worth anything as food. Scrawny, wiry little bastards that they are. No meat on their bones (if they can even be said to have bones. Seriously, the contortions cats can do, I think they're made of dimensionally transcendental materials). A better use for cats would be to hunt mice, have them feed the mice and rats to the dogs. You know, if cats really ARE made of dimensionally transcendental material, one could probably eat them to steal their powers; "you are what you eat" and all that. Or maybe not.

I'm reminded of the video that was going around where these people were eating a cat. I don't know what became of them. But if I were them, and the ASPCA or whatnot tried to charge me with cruelty to animals, I would contest it; I would say that if eating a cat or a dog is cruelty to animals, then eating ANY animal is cruelty to animals. And it's not like cats and dogs are endangered or anything. In fact, in places where cats and dogs are not supposed to be wild, but are, killing them (and/or eating them) would be a good thing, since they're decimating local wildlife. Places like Australia needs to kill off their feral cat population. I'd personally get rid of all feral dogs there, too. Even dingoes. Those bastards were introduced by the aborigines, and helped drive the thylocine extinct. Bastard dingoes, I will never forgive them for that. I wonder what dingoes taste like? Oh, and rabbits are a major pest there, too, and already considered edible.

If I were filthy stinking rich (and the others would let me do it), it would be an interesting experiment to raise dogs for food; treat them well while alive, either have them free-range or take them on frequent walks, slaughter them humanely. Then when the inevitable freak-out over animal cruelty comes, spend money on the legal defense of "WTF, people? I'm not mistreating these animals. They live MUCH better lives, happier lives, before I slaughter them for meat, than commercially-produced cows, chickens, and hogs do. Why don't you go bother the factory farms about animal cruelty? Their conditions are absolutely horrid."

I wonder if Trader Joe's or any of these other similar grocery stores would sell organic, cage-free, free-range canine meat. "Guaranteed to come from happy animals! Humanely slaughtered!" I wonder how well they'd sell. But I know one thing: even the attempt would be a MAJOR controversy.
alex_antonin: TST Antifascist (Default)
Yeah, I know there's a huge-ass layer of iridium (a mineral not common to Earth, but common to asteroids) at the KT boundary, after which there's very little life, but I've never really believed in the theory of dinosaurs being wiped out by a meteor impact. And my doubts became more coherent, into an actual outright disbelief, after watching one of the Discovery Channel's many schpiels about the dinosaurs the other day. Let me explain...

The way they describe the supposed event is thus: Huge-ass meteor smashes into what is now the Yucatan pennennsula, vaporizes everything within X number of miles. Ash and dust spew into the air, blocking out the sun's light for - and I quote here - "years."

Okay... if it blocked out the light of the sun for *a* year, I might believe that it was possible. But *years*? Without light for "years," the only plant life left alive on Earth would be bacteria or maybe some moss. All the trees and other complex plant life would have died out, taking the animals with them. And mammals, with their high metabolisms, could not have survived that any more than the dinosaurs could. But there are plants - trees, even - that existed in the Cretacious period that are still around to this day, like the ginkgo trees, and ferns.

So the way I see it, these are the possibilities:

1. The meteor impact was not as bad as described, and life for the plants was tough for a while. The dinosaurs didn't make it, but the small size of the mammals helped them. The ocean, having its own ecosystem, might have suffered a bit too, and the largest animals died out, but crocs and sharks did not.

2. There was no meteor impact, or there was a small one that was especially iridium-y, that had little or no impact on the ecosystem.

3. There was a small and especially dusty meteor impact or comet impact, and it was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back... the camel, in this case, being an ecosystem that was straining under lots of changes.

4. If the impact and its aftermath had occurred as described, there would be nothing left but bacteria and maybe moss. Possibly the ocean might have managed to stay essentially the same, but then we would - for the most part - have to start up that messy business of growing legs and lungs all over again.

In short, I'm not sure what I believe about the dinosaurs' deaths anymore, but I can tell you that that I highly doubt everything was hunky-dory before the a meteor impact. After all, the sun was cooling down, the oxygen level in the air decreasing, and flowered plants were evolving. Meteor or no meteor, I think the dinosaurs might have been doomed either way.

With utmost sincerity;
---Alexander Antonin

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alex_antonin: TST Antifascist (Default)
Bishop Sanctimonious the Hypocritical

May 2025

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