Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Polar opposites?

As I read the news this morning I couldn't help but doing a double-take when I read the tale of a rather cute polar bear cub in Germany called Knut (pictured). Knut was born in captivity and abandoned with his sibling by the mother. The sibling died, but he has survived thanks to hand-rearing.

Why the double-take? Well apparently, animal rights activists in Germany are demanding the cub be given a lethal injection because showing compassion and hand-rearing it is an act against nature and the cub will grow up not to be a proper bear.

Seriously, the "animal rights" people think the best thing to do is kill the thing, because, presumably, it's right to be a wild animal are being oppressed, therefore it's better off dead. Frank Albrecht, an animal rights campaigners is quoted as saying
"Hand-feeding is not appropriate to the species and is a grave violation of the animal protection laws.... Legally speaking, the zoo should kill the baby bear. Otherwise it is condemning the bear to a dysfunctional life and that too is a breach of the law.... It is not correct to bottle-feed a small polar bear. He will always be fixated on his keeper and will never grow to be a proper polar bear....One should have had the courage to kill him much earlier."
Again I find myself searching for "you couldn't make it up" key on my keyboard. If you kill an animal the animal rights campaigners moan, when you show compassion and save an animal they moan that you should've killed it.

The thing is, this bear was born in captivity, will be brought up in captivity, and will live it's entire life in captivity, so why dopes it need to be killed just because it has a good relationship with a human being? The tabula rasa is just that, it is not an oppression of it's rights for it not to be allowed to exist in the other way, but surely, if one believes in its rights, killing the fluffy little bugger is an oppression of its right to life?

7 comments:

SimonW said...

Perhaps we could shoot any animal rights campaigner who leads a dysfunctional life!

Guthrum said...

Lethal injections, hmmmm- Germans are not very good when things are not alles in ordnung, they get a bit off balance.

lilith said...

I think even Vinnie Jones would balk at putting that fluffy thing out of its "misery".

Anonymous said...

These scum should not be allowed to call themselves animal rights whatever. They obviously do not /care/ about animals. The sick fucks. /They/ should be put down by lethal injection for the good of the rest of society.

Sir-C4' said...

These animal rights activists are nutcases. I they want that little bear killed because their anti-homo saipan ideology cannot bear the thought of an innocent little creature being directly cared for by those evil enviroment-destroying, animal-killing humans.

Hercules said...

Fucking loons!!!!

Anonymous said...

Yeeessss, interesting folk, the Germans. Does that make me racist? Well, I am not suggesting that we kill Germans (well, not since about 1945 have I or members of my family advocated that). Do I desrve a lethal injection for believing these activists dysfnctal?
Next, they'll be suggesting that supermarkets across Europe be bombed for selling battery eggs, or non-organic tomatos....