Those who torture animals should be punished; however, the punishment should not be greater than harming a person.
Let's say your next door neighbor becomes angry at his dog. To punish the animal, he puts him in an oven and cooks him for five minutes at 200 degrees. The dog lives but will bear physical scars of the incident for the rest of his life. The next day this same neighbor is arrested for sexually abusing a minor. For what crime should your neighbor receive the severest punishment: torturing a dog or sexually abusing a minor?…
Article comments
76 - McKenzie
I'm sorry, but I have to say animals are just as important as humans. They have feelings, they feel pain... But also the fine for sexually abusing someone should be higher but not by much.
And what you said about people being more important then animals is a opinion.
77 - Neilandio
Humans and animals have the same rights, they are both living beings. So think it this way what should be more punished if I cooked a little girl or if I sexually abused her? The damage in the first case is both physical and mental, and so it is in a dog, so it should be punished more. Human lifes are not more important than animal lifes
78 - Jim
I'm sorry, but this is wrong. I am a vegetarian and appreciate life, I'm not an extremist like some people out there. I've been sexually abused, it was horrible, but putting an animal through torture is way worse. The sexual abuse put me through psychological problems, but the dog would be burned alive, I can imagine what that must be like. I'm not saying that sexual or other types of assaults aren't a big issue and should be punished, but think for a second, if you had to go through one, what would you choose? Torture? or rape?
79 - Noname
People ARE more important.
Also, people have a soul. Animals don't.
God gave MAN dominion over the creatures. He didn't give animals dominion over man.
Also, I don't believe in spaying or neutering a pet. I also DO NOT believe in birth control or abortion. It's wrong and sinful. In the Bible,God tells Man (and the animals) to be fruitful and multiply. That means 'have a lot of children and fill the Earth.' Also, the Earth is NOT overpopulated. That is a BIG FAT LIE.
I do not believe in spaying or neutering pets, I do not believe in abortion, and I do not believe in birth control.
80 - Noname
Oh, yeah, and I am NOT vegetarian. Period, exclamation mark!
81 - Noname
When I become a mom, I am going to teach my children that humans are WAY more important. Us humans were made in the image of GOD. We were made to bring GLORY to him. Humans are more important. We need to be more concerned about people's souls than animals. As a matter of fact, I pray for people I see out in public, that they will come to know God.
82 - Angelica
This is just atrocious. Humans are NO more important than other animals. We're all life that has evolved on a tiny planet in a huge, possibly infinite universe. We and all other living creatures are connected through DNA, biological and chemical makeups, we're all made of the same stuff, we're all animals. We're all life, we're all equal. We may be the most advanced and evolved specie, we may have created a world and society for ourselves, but before you go on anymore in your arrogant manor, remember this:
We are the same as all over living beings, we're animals, and other living creatures deserve just as much sympathy, love, and care as us humans. Everything is part of nature, we're all connected. And no, laws shouldn't reflect the arrogant, bogus belief that us humans are more important than our fellow Earthlings. If we can reason, ration and be logical, why are people such pompous egocentrics
If you watch the episodes of "Wonders of life" by a physicist named Professor Brian Cox, you'll open your eyes to the reality of this world, and you'll realise every living being on Earth, including us, are all equal.
And by the way, I think the abusive neighbour should receive equal punishment whether he sexually abuses a child or lobs a dog in the oven.
Because I believe in equality, and see things for how they are.
Think twice before being like that.
End of story.
83 - Glen Contrarian
Think about that the next time you swat a mosquito....
84 - Wilemutt
"God gave MAN dominion over the creatures"? Noname, did you read the part of Genesis where God said to man: "I have given you every herb and seed-bearing plant; to you it shall be for food." Funny how carnivores just blow this part off. Humans eat meat because it is an addiction, nothing more. We do not need meat to live. A wise vegan Indian man once replied to a question with a question: Heckler: "Oh, how can you get enough protein?" Wise Man: "How does a cow get its protein?" The American diet has an abundance of protein in all the fruits, grains, vegetables, and legumes we eat. Wake up! Who really knows "who" or "what" has a soul? You believe that because your parents and like-minded folks told you that. I believe that when God returns, He will be royally pissed at the shameful manner in which we treat his beautiful animal kingdom - Factory farming, zoos, circuses, fur trade, the lies from the biomedical industry (yeah, like we needed to kill thousands of pigs to test Thalidomide to prove it safe on humans). Ask the moms who took this when they were pregnant what happened. Same thing with Vioxx which has caused hundreds of deaths. That proved safe on animals too. Animal research is definitely BAD SCIENCE. We should be aiming for a higher level of existence, not trying to perpetuate the horrors and fighting to stay in the dark ages.