Narrow aesthetic interpretations impacting conservation efforts. Why should people love butterflies more than beetles? Why prioritize 'cute' mammals over the vastly more important but abstract notion of biodiversity of insects and worms and other arthropods?
this post was submitted on 01 May 2022
15 points (94.1% liked)
Asklemmy
43856 readers
1784 users here now
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy π
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- !lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
In a country I used to live in, there was a very passionate conservation group for trying to preserve wild horses which were a human-introduced species and massively destroying habitats. I'm not seeing much business motivation so I assume it's just 'we need to protect the cute animal' despite it (unintentionally) killing many more cute and threatened animals.
Expecting them to speak English. I communicate very clear expectations to my cat as to what I expect and for the most part she has no issue following my rules. Everybody says their animals don't listen or are spiteful and all I see is inadequate communication.
The biggest thing people notice is that when I tell her to stop doing or get away from/off of something she immediately stops and moves (sometimes trots/runs) away from whatever it was. I don't have to yell a bunch of times I just sternly say "No. Stop that." once. This is because this is all the warning she gets before I spray her with water. Even if she runs away, if I have to say it twice I will find her and spray her. To me, I've been tasked with her safety, which means keeping her from eating things she's not supposed to, breaking glass and stepping in it, etc. So when I need her to not do something that command needs to work, and it needs to work right away. She's also an indoor cat and the same rules apply for hanging around near the door.
On a nicer/cuter note, right now we're learning to not step on my boobs. When I touch something she doesn't like she yells and pushes me away with her paws. So that's what I've been doing when she wants attention and steps on my boob. I say "ow!" about as loud as she'd yell at me and push her paw away. Today she went to step there but realized where her paw was going to be and put it back down and rubbed her head on my arm instead.
Stop expecting your pets to just magically read your mind lol.
That's all well and good, but did you stop for a moment to think if you raise to your cat's expectations, hmm? Cat has expectations from their human servant. You're lucky cats don't have thumbs, it'd be water spray in the face every time you move.
My honest opinion: This relationship as explained above wouldn't work out if the cat was allowed outside. My home is also the home of my cat. She can do whatever she wants. Just not the things that I don't like, which are not many. She's just like a regular person, a part of family.
And everytime she comes back in, it's because she wants to, and that gives me a nice and positive feeling.
Keeping pets at home with no contact to neither nature nor fellow animals while expecting from them to stay mentally sane.
I absolutely don't get people who are actually confused about why their cat runs around so much. "Why can't it just chill and sit around?" Well... probably because it has a natural urge to run, and it can't properly do that because you don't let it?
claiming to love them and then eating them π€·ββοΈπ
Oh you want controversy do you?
How about sex education? I'll limit the scope to dogs and humans to make it easier to follow.
The policy in most localities is 100% sterilization of all dogs that are not intentionally being bred. This is similar to abstinence only education for humans but is far more forceful (and has medical consequences).
We all know that abstinence only education doesn't work in humans. It in fact backfires and makes them more likely to fuck irresponsibly. The irony here is that it actually works in dogs.
Simply teaching dogs about positive enthusiastic consent has a huge impact. The vast majority of dog pregnancies are actually rape. The female says "no" thousands of times before she is caught off guard and mounted by the rapey male who won't take no for an answer. He even whines like a baby when she says no. He then has a knot to keep her in place til he cums even if she changes her mind.
Teaching female self defense and male positive consent is 90% of the problem. If she rolls on her back she can't be mounted. Most young bitches just simply need to be informed that saying no is an option. Most males simply need to be told their behavior is inappropriate and unauthorized. Dogs learn these lessons easily. Humans don't.
Then there's the fact that dogs are only fertile for 3-6 weeks out of the year. People can't be bothered with that so they force sterilization?
Yet as humans in every aspect of society we keep the sexes separate year round for fear of sexual impropriety. All you need to do is keep problem dogs isolated during those 3-6 weeks.
But no, 100% sterilization it is, and you're a "bad owner" if you disagree.
That's to say nothing of all the cancers caused by sterilization. Cancer is the primary cause of death in sterilized dogs. And of course it is. Growth hormones are regulated by the reproductive organs. Cancer is a disease that can be characterized as "improper growth of cells". Fuck with the regulators that prevent cancer and of course you will get cancer. Duh.
That's an interesting point. I'm curious as to how a person can teach that skill (rolling onto their back) to a dog while conveying the context of sexual self-defense. I recognize dogs are intelligent but there are obvious communication barriers that would make it hard to explain when to do it, and your argument relies on it being a skill that needs to be taught.
As an aside, I (naΔ«vely) think the sterilization policy is less about rape and more about breeding. Also, it depends on region as many countries have pet dogs and cats as introduced species which are dangerous to wildlife and potentially people, so them being able to breed unregulated is controversial.
Of course, the debating the ethics of denying an animal the ability to reproduce, and of introducing a species purely for pet ownership are absolutely relevant, but I suppose for another post.
Iβm curious as to how a person can teach that skill (rolling onto their back) to a dog while conveying the context of sexual self-defense.
It's a natural instinct for most. They also kick with their hind legs, right in the dude's balls. π
It's not so much training as reinforcement through praise. They have to know that you, the teacher/leader picked a side, and that the male's behavior was bad, and the female's behavior was good. That is very easy to communicate.
As for those who don't possess that natural instinct, they can learn by watching others. This is why socialization of females in heat is a far better (and more cost effective) way of preventing unwanted births than sterilization surgerys.
It's interesting you bring up socialization, I'm not used to seeing pets socialized except maybe a walk in public. Of course it seems so obvious how healthy that is when pointed out but I guess it's not normalized at least where I am. (Honestly, if half the people treated children like they treat the pets they love, they would be in jail for abuse.)
Yes, it's especially true in my locality where there is actually a larger population of dogs than there is children. And the amount of money they spend on sterilization surgerys is insane. Then there's the doggy jails. If they just created recreation centers and community training classes it would cost far less, be more effective, and oh yeah, actually be ehtical too.
This is a good one!
In my country, it's called "castration", and I think that fits the term better, because what happens to cats and dogs is quite brutal. For male cats and dogs, the whole testicle is removed. That's fucking awful. For female cats, the whole womb is removed. Sounds ridiculous, but that's sadly "normal".
I had to search quite a while for a veterinary to "sterilize" my cats, which in my county means to simply snip the conduit. The very same that happens with a vasectomy. I had veterinaries shout at me for being a bad pet owner, one was even about to call the police. Apparently, people have very strong opinions when they are confronted with a possible alternative that they can't immediately judge well enough for them to stay cool.
However, I found a vet that did it. The cat is fine, and loves to fuck around. She has two guys from the neighborhood she enjoys. She actually also just chills with a partner. Just lying in the sun together, cuddling. It's like a summer love story. Really cute, and I love seeing her being a natural cat.
She can't get pregnant anymore, and I kinda feel bad for it, because she didn't choose that. I did that. However, she got pregnant once, and had 5 children, and had the experience of being a mother. That somehow makes it easier for me.
Most young removed
I assume you wrote b-i-t-c-h-e-s. This is a really good example of why automatic profanity filters are stupid. They are easily avoided, and you can't use words in their original meaning anymore.
Most young bitches just simply need to be informed that saying no is an option.
Someone had to take that one out of its context