Dogs as shark bait

[tara20]

Doesn`t this just make your skin crawl?
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/1 0/1019_051019_dogs_sharks.html

[tara20]

I put it in the news section because the photo appeared in a news article here the other day.
Dead bait is one thing, but a live animal? Completely unnecessary.
Anyone who has a dog or any other pet immediately thinks of their own animal with hooks through it's nose or paws.
Man's inhumanity to other creatures obviously knows no bounds.

[V2 Schneider]

Lonnie, my dear ABer.

I am surprised by your opinion about saying maggots are the same as dogs. You are usually so level headed and accurate.

Whilst I agree with you in principal that it is probably cruel for maggots and worms to have a hook plunged through them for fishfood, there is a world of difference.

1) Worms and maggots are believed by scientists to have no pain receptors. Yes , we do not really know as we are not maggots, but I for one do not believe insects and especially larvae of such have a notion of pain. Dogs feel pain, simple as that.

2) Maggots and worms that use trees that overhang rivers etc and dropped by birds are natural food for fish, hence their popularity. Dogs are not natural food for fish.

3) There is no evidence that maggots have any notion of "animal society". There are completely dimensional re. basic survival and have no social comprehension. Worms, different to maggots as they have morphed, do form simple relationships, but again far, far removed from any mammal.

4) Dogs have a cultrural significance in many parts of the world as a domesticated pet, worms and maggots do not.

5) Dogs are intelligent creatures, worms and maggots are not.

Yes, there are many sub-arguments like eating lamb and pork is no different to eating dog or cat (as many a Chinese do!) but we have to look at culture.

I love dogs and all wildlife things yet I write this after I have just consumed some very rare roast beef. Hypocritical, maybe, but the fact remains that poor dog with a hook through his nose is cruel and evil beyond words. Many other practices are cruel in the world, but if you isolate this, it is very cruel.

And I still hope to God the fisherman drown a horrible death. That'll teach 'em.

[Lonnie]

Hi V2,
You make some good points,
I'll take them one at at time if I may,

1), Pain, I never spoke about pain, I agree with what you say about the pain receptors, just the cruelty of putting living creatures, who, regardless of pain or not, know that are trapped, and try to escape, (mental pain).

2) Natural food, yes, as are the Wilderbeest for Alligators etc, there's no need for us 'civilised people' to use live bait, in the natural world, plantlife included, its kill or be killed, eat or be eaten.
Not in this country, but if a dog falls into a river in other parts of the world, it can become food for a predator.

4). Can't argue on that one, I agree.

5) What is intelligence?. to me, that makes no difference, they are still living, breathing creatures, and should be respected for the natural job they do.

I sincerely hope you thoroughly enjoyed your meal, I had it yesterday, Yorkshire Pudding, the works, but the animals we eat, are supposed to have been killed painlessly, how they're kept is another matter.

PS
Are you another Wardy incarnation?, if not, I apologise,

[V2 Schneider]

Indeed I am the one and only wardy, and shalom to your fine self (do you like the Jewish sounding name?).

I respectfully beg to differ on our opinions. As said, I know where you are coming from, but a maggot is a maggot, and a dog is a dog.

I know that is a weak argument, but dogs in a completely non-scientific way, are just one of the family for many a folk. Whereas maggots are just, well..... just maggots.

[Lonnie]

Hi Wardy, Shalom to you also my friend, the name is good, how did you come by this one?, as for pets, can't disagree, but in Malaya, we had a chap who kept a pet leech, allowed it to feed on his arm once a day, can't remember its name though.

As for different opinions, thats what discussions are all about, boring old world if we all agreed on everything.