Why Is Killing So Acceptable? On Levees And Guns…
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This makes me mad:
“Luck ran out for about a dozen pigs who escaped their flooded farm, swam through raging floodwaters and scrambled atop a sandbag levee in southeastern Iowa.
“Des Moines County sheriff’s officials shot the pigs Tuesday, not long after they reached the levee several miles from the nearest hog farm.” (source)
These twelve or so pigs were the lucky ones who managed to save themselves in the flooding. And then they were killed for no good reason.
Here’s the excuse:
“Officials said they killed the pigs over worries that they would weaken the levee. [...]
“Basically you cannot have something with a hoof walk on plastic and not poke a hole in the plastic and let water into it,” said LeRoy Lippert, chairman of the county emergency management commission.
Alright, I’m no pig expert, but I’ve made sandbags. The sand keeps the water back, not the bag. A few holes in a few bags aren’t going to ruin a levee.
I worked in the California Conservation Corps in my youth. Mostly I built and maintained hiking trails but we did some other things too. I built a few retainer walls, did some restoration work, and gave high school presentations on motor oil recycling. I’ve worked a handful of forest fires and even helped clean up an oil spill in the San Francisco Bay. I enjoy outdoor manual labor and I care about the environment.
Oh yeah, and I’m not a pig expert, but I know this much: pigs are similar in personality to dogs and they have about the intelligence of a three-year-old human child. (source)
And I’ve worked in disaster situations. In fires, floods, and spills there’s no need for violence. Well organized crews can operate without resorting to the kind of chaotic violence that allowed this pig killing. Honestly, in my opinion, there’s really no reason for disaster workers to carry guns or other weapons.
But all of that is not the point. My point is merely that sandbags are bags of sand. Levees can be built with all kinds of things, but the main power of a levee isn’t a plastic lining. The power of a levee is it’s strength and it’s height. A dozen pigs – even if they were trying – couldn’t ruin a well built levee. At least not a major levee. That excuse for killing the pigs was B.S.
Would they have killed humans climbing up on a levee if the humans were wearing high heels or soccer cleats? Or… prosthetic limbs?
Wait. Maybe I don’t want to know the answer.
The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has demonstrated our society’s callous attitude towards both humans and animals in need. When the flooding destroyed poorly built New Orleans’ levees and killed thousands of people and animals, cruelty killed more.
Why are humans so cruel? Why?
Just a few more notes on this subject:
1. The pigs did not need to be killed. They were afraid of humans and did not pose a threat to humans. In fact, all the officers needed to do to get the pigs off the levee was to walk towards the pigs.
2. My analogy about humans who might poke holes in levees was intended to be as close as possible to the real situation: the thought experiment assumes the humans are escaping the floods and swimming for their lives, not just hanging out on top of a levee for the fun of it.
3. Pigs root around and dig things up, sure. But these pigs were not rooting around. They were swimming to safety, trying with all their might to survive the floods.
4. Only anti-animal people would accept a conclusion that the “problem” pigs might pose to levees should be “solved” by guns and violence, without even attempting other methods first.
5. I find it ironic that our society so freely condones unnecessary animal killing and the promotion of violence, yet labels nonviolent animal advocacy “terrorism.”
This story is so, so, so upsetting to me. I just think about how scared they must have been in the flooding, and how hard they tried to escape and survive….and then to be shot for no good reason. It’s just awful. Imagine if those had been dogs – people’s pets – they wouldn’t have been shot. AND, if they had been shot, there would have been wild uproar about it, but because they were “just pigs”, it will go unnoticed by most people.
Ugh.
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I can’t help but think that those pigs were the lucky ones – being murdered as they were, somewhat free, beyond the gates of the factory farm. What fate awaited them had they not been washed away by the flood and eventually shot to death?
Isn’t that terrible that I thought that as I read this post. I mean really, what’s wrong with me. Although if we are honest, I think I may be right, unfortunately – it’s not unfortunate for us of course, but for the hundreds of millions of pigs that will never escape the torture of the farm.
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Thanks for posting this story. I saw it on CNN yesterday and didn’t have the chance to disseminate it or break it down at AAFL. It all comes back to the way humans see nonhumans as disposable things. If these had been children, people would have most certainly gone out of their way to rescue them. Instead, they are the ‘food that got away’. Unfortunately, as mentioned in the CNN story I saw, they kept running away when people approached them. I can’t for the life of me imagine why the might have been scared of humans….
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