STANDARD DOUBLE STANDARDS

One of the few amusing things about animal exploitation is people's attempts to maintain the illusory dichotomy of animals whose death is wrong, and those whose death is of no consequence. For instance, some in San Diego are aghast at the method some poultry ranchers are using to kill thousands of chickens: wood-chipping machines. Yeah, that's pretty gruesome - but don't these same people give a damn that male just-hatched chicks are routinely tossed in an electric shredder? What's the diff? Similarly, as more people become aware that zoos are selling "surplus" animals to canned hunts, some say "If we can see animals in zoos one day and they end up as rugs on the floor the next, that's wrong." Yes, it sure is. But is it right if we didn't see the animal in a zoo the day before? Howcum? And why is it OK to skin cows alive as they howl in pain every single day, but doing the same to bunny rabbits is a crime? Oh, is it because the latter was being done in front of children?