On Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 3:20 PM, William Robb <war...@gmail.com> wrote:
> What else should we not choose for the animal? > > Should we just slit open a bag of kibble and leave it for the dog to eat > when he wants? > Should we just let them run wild in the streets? > Should we not train them? > > My point is that as a responsible dog owner, I give my dog as few choice > options as possible. > I don't want him choosing. > He isn't very good at making good choices when left to his own devices. > > Dog training is all about taking the choices that the dog might make in a > given situation and limiting him to very specific ones. > In this situation, I want that response. When a particular word is said, I > want a particular response. > > This is the training that will save a dog's life. > > I'm not giving him any options, I'm not giving him any choices. > This is just the way it is with dog ownership. > It's why we are called the masters. I'm talking about dying an animal green for St. Patrick's day for Dog's Sake! I'm saying that using dogs or cats or any other animal as freak shows by dying them unnatural colours is wrong. I'm saying that since the dog can't choose whether to say yes or no to ~that single thing~ that we shouldn't impose ~that choice~ on them. This has nothing to do with dogs running our lives, and it has nothing to do with the master/slave relationship (as you call it) that we have with dogs and it has nothing to do with the ethics of imposing order and making necessary, healthy choices for them. Yes, we make choices for dogs every day in terms of diet and routine and scheduling, and while some of those are choices that the dogs might decide differently, we know that these are the healthiest decisions to make. Such is the ongoing burden we took on when we domesticated dogs however many thousand years ago. Imposing our preferences on animals for matters of vanity is a far different matter IMHO. cheers, frank -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
