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Last time I brought this topic up, someone inexplicably took my message as "hey, it's okay to kill and torture dogs--we do it to other animals all the time!" So if you're confused, hint: it's the complete opposite of that.

I guess I've just been thinking about this a lot lately, since I'm still hearing guys on sports radio act like it's so despicable to torture a certain kind of animal (I agree), yet in the next breath they're pushing the steak house they own. I'm starting to think that some people aren't thinking of this in terms of: "how could someone do that to an animal" (as evidenced by the fact that they EAT animals), but rather: "I am so much better than a person who'd do something our society has decided is evil" (regardless of what that decision is). They get just as disgusted with people who get really weird body piercings, or with dudes who have sex with other dudes. In other words, it's not about the act, it's about how acceptable the act is. The equivalent person to the "average American" in some parts of the world wouldn't think twice about eating dog meat. That would be a case of the "average person" (where they are) eating dog, whereas if you did that here, you're far from average. Even though you're both doing the same thing.

And some people might say that the Vick thing is different from all of this because it's about the torturing. But come on, if some giant creatures came to our planet and started taking your children/mother/grandma away and said, "we're gonna eat them but we'll kill them in a really humane way," would that make you feel any better?

Anyway, don't worry--if you eat meat, I don't think of you as an animal killer. I haven't eaten animal flesh in ten years, but I do eat some of the stuff that spews out of them, like cheese and cookie dough ice cream. I'm just sayin', maybe we should all think about what's done to these animals for our pleasure and whether it's necessary. Or you can go do whatever.