Gruesome Movie Sparks Outrage

*sigh* I dunno what to say about this, I'm not one to post an opinion without researching, but honestly this is one case where after looking into it (including seeing the video while ALREADY sick) I'd much rather have not looked into it. The best suggestion is to ignore people like this, however do NOT censor them. I personally feel this law PETA is using is rather stupid as has been pointed out on several sites, it makes National Geographic videos of Bullfights or Poachers questionable in court. (The law goes on to say that they are legal if done for educational (sic), or religeous purposes)

There is so much that can be said about this, do I like the video, no way in hell, I'm sorry I even saw it. (thanks for posting and showing it to me *gag*) However the issue comes down censorship. Idiots like this are a downside, the negative side to free speach that is inevitable with any of the good. Removing them will remove the good as well. Eh... again, my final words, ignore them and they'll go away, if only from YOUR world, if not completely from lack of interest.

I also saw the video and wish I hadn't. It was one of those "eww this is awful go watch" things, and I did... *sigh i'm such a rubber-necker* Anyway, the fellow who runs the site makes a good point.

If someone posted a video of a cow or a pig being slaughtered, would they be brought up under animal cruelty charges? Of course not. I wouldn't want to watch that either, but I seriously doubt that there would have been as much of an uproar over it. The cat was not tortured - it was killed quickly and with as much care as a hunter does when killing a bird that they winged. That part of the video takes about 2 seconds - the whole rest of the video is footage of the cat being skinned and grilled. At that point it's indistinguishable from a rabbit or some other small animal that people eat. If the video had been of a rat getting killed and cooked, it would have just been gross and not "outrageous." If it had been a pig... Well, that would have just been one step down from what was shown on Survivor last season. But no - it was a cat. (And I'll be damned if that's a kitten - it was about the size of my 5-yr old cat.) In some countries, people eat cats and dogs. That's a fact. In some countries, people wouldn't dream of killing and eating a cow. That's also a fact. But does that stop us from going to McDonalds?

This is just another case of the radical animal "protection" groups' using the cuteness factor to get people to sympathize with their agenda.

Excuse me. I need to go buy steaks for dinner.

Now don't get me wrong: I'm all for stomping out wanton, pointless cruelty, both to animals and humans. But where does PETA get off telling people that their cultural norms are horribly wrong and evil? As Atara mentioned in the previous comment, some cultures look down on us as heathens and lunatics because we think a nice chunk of prime rib and a fine wine is a good way to celebrate a wedding anniversary.

We have videos shown in schools across the US for "educational purposes" that quite graphically depict things like child birth via C-section, drug use, and (yes) how cows go from mooing to being a piece of jerkey. In my opinion, these are all equally horrible things to witness. Why is this so much different, aside from the aforementioned "but it's a cute and fuzzy creature!" factor?

Do I think this video should have been made? Not particularly, but at the same time I'm not going to tell somebody s/he doesn't have the right to make or show the video. Free speech and all that (which is rapidly becoming less and less "free" these days).