All Creatures Great and Small

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

                                                                

                                                                -     Mahatma Gandhi (apocryphal)

It's not surprising that most of the hot-button topics of the culture wars relate to children.  Whether it's what books children should be allowed to read to how schools should handle transgender children to whether people should be allowed to take steps to prevent themselves from having children, the entire subject of children is fraught with emotion.  There are very things more personal or insulting than criticizing (or being perceived as criticizing) someone else's parenting... as I am reminded of every time I (nicely!) ask parents to tell their kids to stop climbing fences, throwing rocks, etc.

Close behind that, people also feel very strongly about their pets and animal care practices.  There's a reason J.D. Vance said "childless cat ladies," and why it struck such a nerve with so many people.  There's a reason that (false) stories about immigrants eating cats and dogs caused such a whirlwind of news coverage.   Animal issues were barely mentioned on the campaign trial, but pets still resonate strongly with people, with animal abusers facing almost as much (well-deserved) vitriol as child abusers (also well-deserved).  But even though you didn't hear Donald Trump or Kamala Harris give any speeches on the subject of animal welfare, there are still massive cultural controversies and divisions about how we relate to non-human animals under human care... and that's not even touching the hot button topic of animal agriculture.

Two recent stories which come to mind...

First (and featured to a small extent in Trump rallies), there's the saga of Peanut the squirrel and Fred the raccoon, illegally-kept pets by a wildlife enthusiast in southern New York.  The Instagram-famous pets were seized by the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, after which the rodent bit an official, and as a result was euthanized for rabies testing.   The backlash has been severe, with critics claiming that it was a massive case of government overreach resulting in the unnecessary death of the animals.  I'm firmly opposed to the idea of people taking wild mammals and raising them as pets - but I can't help but think that there was a better way that this could have been handled that would have allowed the animals to live out their lives under human care in other circumstances.  This was a teachable moment that turned into a tragedy.

States in which it is legal to own a raccoon:

I'm a hell of a lot less conflicted about what happened at Louisiana State University.  For generations, the mascot of LSU has been Mike the Tiger.  Tigers are popular mascots for sports teams, but most campuses don't have an actual tiger living on campus, as LSU does.  Historically, the big cat was paraded out to home games.  The practice was phased out, and now the tiger (actually a succession of "Mikes") can be seen living in a rather nice habitat on the campus.  This peaceful situation was disrupted when Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry decided that he wanted the tiger present at an LSU-Alabama game.  The school vet, and the tiger's keepers, said that it was a bad idea for a variety of reasons, and that they would not produce the tiger for the game.  Snubbing their advice, but realizing that it blocked him from using that tiger, Landry arranged to have a tiger driven over from Florida (the animal owned by a character with a somewhat spotty USDA record) and driven around the packed, thunderously-loud stadium in a cage about the size of a mattress, surrounded by screaming fans.  

In each of these cases, I feel like the problem is people viewing animals not as sentient beings, but as props.  I'll cut Peanut's former caretaker some slack for good intentions, especially in the face of NY's overly heavy-handed response.  I see no possible justification for Landry's more with the tiger.  I could understand thinking it might be an interesting idea and asking about it, but when everyone you ask essentially tells you that it's a bad idea and tantamount to animal abuse... maybe don't keep asking until you finally get someone to say "yes" to your idea.

Animal welfare seldom makes the political mainstage, mostly because it's usually seen as a local issue, rather than a federal one.  I have a hard time seeing it ever being a dominant political issue in the manner that immigration or abortion will.  Still, it easy to see that these are issues that people feel very strongly about (sometimes violently so, judging from the amount of death threats that swirl around whenever these stories make the news), they shouldn't be swept aside as filler stories or light news.  (Most) people care very much about the wellbeing of animals, and the question of how they should be treated are topics that are worthy of serious discussion, if only to help us as a society improve our collective empathy.