My Op-Ed
One of my op-eds highlights why declawing, cropping ears, and docking tails on pets is cruel and unnecessary. These surgeries are purely cosmetic and have no actual benefit for cats or dogs.
Final Thoughts
I think for me the most provocative thing we talked about was feminism and Douglas' book. It really addressed things that I hadn't really thought about before. For example, it always seemed to me that sexism was on its way out of our society when really it just has a different face now. I also found it really challenging yet interesting to write book reports and feature articles. These are things I really had to work hard on since I had almost no experience with that sort of writing. I’m too used to writing in an academic fashion. I felt it was a good change of pace though, especially after writing things like lit reviews for my capstone.
Jackie, this sounds really intriguing! I grew up with dogs and we never would have even thought to crop their ears or dock their tails. It seems absolutely unnecessary and cruel to me, so I think we're on the same page, but it might be interesting to hear why someone supports such things.
ReplyDeleteI had little to no experience with cats growing up because my dad and brother are both very allergic. Still to this day, it scares me a bit to be around cats because I find their behavior to be a lot more unpredictable than dogs'. My partner has two cats that are great and they are NOT declawed, though, honestly, I think I prefer to be around cats that are because of my fear of their unpredictability. I've heard that declawing a cat is similar to removing a person's finger tips are the first knuckle, which sounds incredibly cruel when put that way, but again, I'd be interested in learning more on both sides of that debate!