Thursday, February 14, 2013

Discriminating Animals; Discriminating Against Animals

I just came across this funny macro today about the non-discriminating nature of cats. According to the macro's creator, cats hate you regardless of your ethnicity, gender or sexuality. They are equal opportunity haters!

But the mention of sexuality reminded me of an article I read about just last week which was a much sadder example of how sexuality is still used as a justification for discrimination, but in this case, by a person against a dog.

This American bulldog mix, named Elton by the woman who adopted him, was abandoned at a Tennessee shelter because his previous guardian, an unnamed man, thought he was "gay" because he was seen "hunched over" another male dog. Because the shelter was full, he was about to be euthanized, but one of the shelter workers posted about his plight, and the reason for his surrender, on Facebook, and he was adopted that same day by a woman named Stephanie, and his story went viral. Millions of people read about the lunacy of someone abandoning a dog to die because he was engaging in what is, ultimately, very normal canine behavior.

Not only was this man exposing his ignorance, but intolerance and cruelty of the worst kind. It's too bad that we don't have hate crime legislation that pertains to non-human animals. 

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