Conservatives, Libertarians, and Puppies as Shark Bait
Via Clayton Cramer comes the observation that cruelty to animals is a subject on which libertarians and conservatives differ, in connection with puppies as shark bait (go no further unless you really want details):
A New Definition of Live Bait
When I first saw the headline, I was going to make fun of it–after all, the puppies are dead when they are being used as shark bait, right? No.
Brigitte Bardot, the 1950s and 1960s film star turned animal rights campaigner, has called on the French government to halt the reported use by fishermen on the island of Reunion of live puppies and kittens as shark bait.
“It is imperative that the government does something to end this practice,” she said in a letter to the minister for French overseas territories, Francois Baroin, a copy of which was given to AFP Thursday.
According to Clicanoo, a newspaper in Reunion, a French island located in the Indian Ocean, a six-month-old puppy was found last month with hooks implanted in its snout and one of its legs.
The French Society for the Protection of Animals (SPA) told the daily the dog was the victim of cruel fishermen who attract sharks by throwing puppies or kittens into the water, tied to fishing lines, and wait for the predators to swallow the thrashing animals.
This is one of the reasons that I am a conservative, not a libertarian. It may be your property but there are some actions too cruel to allow. Even a cat or a dog can recognize that it is about to be mauled to death. Most state ban cockfighting, and that’s an animal with far less awareness.