Immediately after I heard this disturbing story, I wanted to hear what the two men had to say. How could they justify acts as heinous as these? The 22 year old man, Joshua Moore, described it as "not a big deal" and that they were "bored". Forcing animals to eat their own fecal matter? Pouring lemon juice down dogs' throats? Is this what we are naturally inclined to do for entertainment? Violence has become such a norm in American society today. We see murder and bloodshed daily on the news--whether on the radio or the t.v. or the internet. When we are not hearing about violent things happening in the world around us, we immerse ourselves into video games and t.v. shows that encourage kids to punch, shoot, and kill. Are acts such as Moore's due to the overwhelming amount of violence American society has exposed to its people? Are we now finding violent acts such as these "not a big deal"? What are the other factors that are prompting people to do these horrific things?
That's us Americans: torturing small animals for a power trip and a violence fix. I know it's not necessarily fair to say that only Americans are capable of such horrible acts or that all Americans appreciate these things, but it's definitely in our nation's DNA to appreciate asserting power through force. After all, we have the largest military force the world has ever seen and half of what we use it for is to force our democracy upon or threaten the rest of the world. Because our country encourages these ideals, our country's media follows suit. The sick people who did this are mostly just a product of our culture (although there are undeniably some underlying mental conditions or personal problems that caused them to do something this horrific). Heck, you might even say they're patriots for their reckless behavior.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I apologize if this sounds a little mean-spirited, I just have a really low tolerance for animal cruelty.
D. Carns, Good post about a horrifying story. I only wish here you might have jumped to national statistics or the larger conversation of animal rights/animal cruelty.
ReplyDeleteI don't necessarily think that this is just an American issue; I'm not an expert on the issue, but I believe that it's also an issue in some nations in South America. Culturally, I'm not so sure what the areas have in common, but it makes you wonder if simply their geographic proximity has something to do with why this occurs in both areas. In either case, it's clearly unacceptable, but it's an interesting thought.
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