‘Culture’ can kill -- in Puerto Rico & everywhere

Cockfighting will soon end in Puerto Rico.  As of Friday, Dec. 20, the island’s “national sport,” declared to be part of its culture, will be illegal.

Needless to say, myriad Puerto Ricans who raise fighting birds and make a living off their deaths, are not happy.  Some have vowed to continue cockfighting underground.  Others have decried their livelihood loss.  Many have argued that the values of people on the mainland are being imposed on PR.

  

Finally reaching a longtime goal -- ending all spectator sports that pit animals against each other (think dog fights) -- the Humane Society of the US (HSUS) had long lobbied Congress for this prohibition, built into last year’s federal farm bill.  

Kitty Block, HSUS president, said, "Cruelty is not culture . . .  it's important to look at what [cockfighting] is, and what it's doing to the animals.   These are birds that are armed with weapons, and they slash eyes out . . . it's a brutal blood sport that should've gone a long time ago."

But, claimed some of those who raise and care for their birds (or the ones with potential, anyway), cockfighting is a “gentleman’s sport”!  To which Block responded, “Tossing animals into a ring to tear each other apart is anything but gentlemanly.”

https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-in-entertainment/cruel-sports/cockfighting/

“It’s part of our culture!” has been the protective cry of inhabitants to all those trying to stop the clubbing of baby seals in Canada for their fur. This hideously cruel centuries-old practice continues today despite protests from around the world, some countries’ banning of imported seal skins and even a drop in demand.  

“It’s part of our culture!” animal hunters and trappers have cried over the years.  And they’re still at it.

Accompanying the rising death toll for horses involved in horseracing, “It’s part of our culture!” the owners, gamblers and fans still cry -- in spite of 37 horse deaths at California’s Santa Anita racetrack alone since the end of last year.

Here’s a heartbreaking fact: “[M]any of the horses have seen so little of life they’ve never eaten a carrot.  Thoroughbreds die at the track, and . . . they all die young.”  Is that a fair fate for horses?  Is that what they’re alive for -- at too young an age being forced to race, to suffer injuries, to be put down?  

But “Years are expensive in the Thoroughbred industry, and years are what horses need,” says Sally Eckhoff, who knows and loves horses, and who wrote “These Horses Are Too Young to Die.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/30/opinion/sunday/horse-racing-early-deaths.html

What’s the beef?

The competition between beef and beef-substitutes is heating up.  So quickly successful have the ersatz burgers (the Impossible Burger and the Beyond Burger) become that beef producers are now fighting to halt those companies from describing their products as “meat.”  And raising questions about their healthfulness.   

Meanwhile, the beef-free substitutes are being gobbled up.  Two recent periodical articles have broken down the issues, and if you want to know more, I suggest the New York Times story linked below or the longer New Yorker article (“Value Meal,” September 30, 2019).

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/03/well/eat/fake-meat-vs-real-meat.html?te=1&nl=well&emc=edit_hh_20191205?campaign_id=18&instance_id=14271&segment_id=19300&user_id=a360dad7b26df61ea65737080d3deedd&regi_id=2076027420191205

A winsome relief

               Narwhal                        Dodo pic

With NJ’s notorious bear hunt starting up again this week, so needlessly and unfairly, let’s close on a happier note, about a puppy -- but not your usual puppy, adorable as s/he would be.  This sweet brown pup was born with an extra tail, short and soft although not waggable, on his head.

A rare birth defect, the half-size tail isn’t harming him and may stay right where it is, say those caring for the little guy.  For now, “Narwhal,” named for the whale variety with a unicorn-like horn in front, is just having puppy fun.   

https://newsletters.thedodo.com/t/ViewEmail/d/5F5F6CCDEA04CED32540EF23F30FEDED/083127FDFB36BBC9A0F01D70678E0DEE

#

Your comments are always welcome.  Simply go to 1moreonce.blogspot.com.