Terrorists have unsuccessfully attempted to kill innocent people by detonating an explosive packed on a donkey cart. From the story:A small Syrian-backed terrorist group in Gaza said its activists blew up a donkey cart laden with explosives close to the border with Israel on Tuesday, killing the animal but causing no human casualties. Abu Ghassan, spokesman for the terrorist group, said more than 200 kilograms of dynamite were heaped on the animal-drawn cart. He added that the explosives were detonated 60 meters from the concrete security barrier that separates the territory from Israel.Why do I think some people will care more about the dead animal--which was a terrible thing to do--than they would have the people who could have been killed? Oh, that's right. This has happened once before, after which PETA wrote an angry letter of protest to Yassar Arafat, not about the intifada that was killing a lot of people at the time, but the dead donkey. Here it is:
February 3, 2003Of course, the letter was not intended to touch the heart of Arafat. It was a typical publicity stunt by Newkirk, who is adept at taking any news item and wrangling it to gain publicity for PETA--as in the recent Octomom neuter the doggies stunt.
Yasser Arafat, President...
Your Excellency:
I am writing from an organization dedicated to fighting animal abuse around the world. We have received many calls and letters from people shocked at the bombing in Jerusalem on January 26 in which a donkey, laden with explosives, was intentionally blown up.
All nations behave abominably in many ways when they are fighting their enemies, and animals are always caught in the crossfire. The U.S. Army abandoned thousands of loyal service dogs in Vietnam. Al-Qaeda and the British government have both used animals in hideously cruel biological weaponry tests. We watched on television as stray cats in your own compound fled as best they could from the Israeli bulldozers.
Animals claim no nation. They are in perpetual involuntary servitude to all humankind, and although they pose no threat and own no weapons, human beings always win in the undeclared war against them. For animals, there is no Geneva Convention and no peace treaty—just our mercy.
If you have the opportunity, will you please add to your burdens my request that you appeal to all those who listen to you to leave the animals out of this conflict?
We send you sincere wishes of peace.
Very truly yours,
Ingrid Newkirk
President, PETA
No statement so far from PETA on the latest donkey casualty.
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I see your point... but, nonetheless, to protest one thing, does not mean to devalue or not be opposed to another bad thing. It is an egregious logical fallacy to assume that, merely b/c one opposes one thing, that they are automatically in favor of other factually related actions. For example, if I write my senator, protesting one aspect of a bill, but there are other negative aspects in a bill-- it doesnt mean that I am more not concerned or less concerned about one type of wrong than the other. This is especially so and Ms. Newkirk heads an animal advocacy group--the humans who are being killed have many advocates and the animals need a voice on their behalf. To say that Ms. Newkirk cares less about humans is specious.
ReplyDeleteStately more concretely, Ms. Newkirk is against the taking of life-- it is a given that killing humans through terrorism is morally wrong. Ms. Newkirk also believes that it is wrong to kill donkeys as well. That doesn't mean she "care[s] more about the dead animal" than humans--it just means that, she, unlike nearly everyone else is concerned about the deaths of humans AND nonhumans.