Saturday, June 13, 2015

ALF Terrorist?

The Animal Liberation Front was brought up several times and a movie was shown in class about them.  One thing that seemed to shock some of the students and the ALF members was that the ALF was considered the most dangerous terrorist orginization in the United States.  This also surprised me when I heard.  I do think they should be considered terrorists because they do use terror to further their politics.  I do not think they should be ranked the most dangerous terrorists in the United States.  The ALF has not killed anyone and poses little threat to most people.  Surely there must be much more dangerous terrorists in the US rather than a group of radical animal activists.

Black Beauty

Out of all the books, exerts, and passages I have read for this class Black Beauty was undoubtably my favorite one.  Black Beauty moved me with it tale of hardship that horses went through in England during the industrial era.  I think one reason why I liked Black Beauty was because it seemed so real. If a horse was sentient enough to write a book the book would probably look very similar to Black Beauty. Another reason why I enjoyed Black Beauty was because of the range of emotions I felt while reading it.  I had to hold back my tears during the reunion at the end and bit my tongue in anger after Beauty was almost worked to death.  Black Beauty holds a place as one of my all time favorite books to read.

Zoos

Zoos were a subject that we talked about many times in class.  Even though we discussed and read many articles about the ethics of zoos I am torn about what I should think of them.  I like going to the zoo and seeing all the animals but I do feel a bit sad when I look at them because I know they have no freedom.  One of the essays I wrote for this class was on zoos and to summarize it I basically said zoos are neither bad nor good.  Both sides have their points and in the end I think they cancel each other out leaving this grey neutral stance on zoos.  It is hard to be neutral because you usually end up leaning towards one side. I am not sure what side I probably lean towards but I hope I can keep being  bipartisan on this subject until one side outweighs the other.

Should We Have Pets?

One topic that was brought up in class was the ethics of pets.  In class we merely mentioned the subject and did not pursue a discussion on it.  I was fairly interested in it and wanted to hear what other people had to say about it.  Personally I am for having pets, I have four dogs and I cannot imagine life without them.  Many pets also seem content with their current living arrangements.  But I do think some animals should not be pets, big cats for example.  Animals like that should not be kept by people, they're too dangerous and need vast amounts of land to roam for them to live a pleasant life. I do think people should have pets but I do not think all animals should be pets.