MetaFilter posts tagged with Cruelty

Bulgarian Days

tellurian — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 14:09:25 -0800

Happy Bear's Day, a Saint Day on the Bulgarian Festival Calendar. Some others that caught my eye: Fire dancing Nestinars. Makaveyan Days – "all the sons-in-law gather in their fathers-in-law houses. After the meal the eldest son-in-law starts chasing the younger in the threshing-floor with a stick and beats them." Also The House of Humour and Satire in Grabovo [Proverb – A WORD makes no hole, a pinch tears no underskirt. Superstition – Sin 1. To give a child a spoon to play with].

Toronto Humane Society: one out of three is pretty damn bad

maudlin — Sat, 30 May 2009 14:38:24 -0800

At the Toronto Humane Society, veterinarians say animals die suffering unnecessarily in their cages while pleas to euthanize them are dismissed. Dozens of staff, volunteers and veterinarians have quit in protest. ... A note written by a staff member or volunteer on the medical chart of a cat, animal ID A127495, admitted last fall, reads: "Died Oct 19 3:15 am. Gasped and jerked and cried last breaths, because there was no one in shelter to euthanize or treat. This is not humane." ... [THS president] Mr. Trow says he strives to keep euthanasia rates low for ethical reasons. “How can anyone suggest that, because he might be here longer than anyone would want, that it's better to put [a dog] down?” Mr. Trow asked. “I think that's a strange suggestion, don't you? You live here as long as you can.” Images (yes, they're disturbing.) Video of a puppy adopted out with a broken leg. The THS web site. Mr. Trow maintains that the THS does not have a no-kill policy and denies that the shelter's veterinarians are influenced in their decisions whether or not to euthanize. “There's no pressure on anyone to do anything or not to do anything other than on professionals, professional doctors and professional nurses, to do the best they can,” he said. By law, it is a requirement for veterinarians employed by humane societies to have language in their contract that makes them responsible for all decisions relating to the care of animals. “I couldn't work at the Toronto Humane Society any longer because it violated my professional oath as a veterinarian,” said Johanna MacNaughton, a veterinarian who resigned in April. ... “I would never make a euthanasia decision without great consideration, and I would only euthanize an animal if it was suffering with no chance of recovery,” said Dr. MacNaughton. And an internal memo obtained by The Globe confirms that euthanasia decisions must be cleared by management, many of whom have no medical training.

Heaven's Gate: a -career- suicide

Ogre Lawless — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 14:19:58 -0800

Coming off of The Deer Hunter, and Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, Director/Screenwriter Michael Cimino looked like a rising star. His next film, Heaven's Gate would prove so disasterous as to change the industry forever. [more inside]

What part of "woof" don't you understand?

Mayor Curley — Mon, 20 Jun 2005 18:40:59 -0800

Should a rapist be given a harsher sentence if his victim dies as a result of the rape? A Campobello, South Carolina teen has been accused of a rape in his neighborhood. Now the victim has died, possibly because of injuries to her internal organs. And the charges are being upgraded, but prosecutors aren't looking for the death penalty.

Cruelty isn't just an American phenomenon-- a Danish caretaker has eaten some of his charges and the law can't touch him.

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amberglow — Fri, 11 Mar 2005 21:00:25 -0800

"He told me his brother was there with him, but he really wanted to see his mother, could he please call his mother. He was crying." --thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, the ACLU has received documents detailing detention, abuse, and death, of many, including children, at Abu Ghraib. Mostly PDFs, but summaries available on most pages: ... Investigation closed because furtherance "would be of little or no value" ... --statements of that sort are common throughout.

Life just got easier

jonson — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 08:13:58 -0800

Bright Coop are an industrial farm supplies hardware manufacturer whose latest product, the "e-z catch" is essentially a giant street sweeper used for rounding up loose chickens in a coop. For a fascinating & kind of horrifying quicktime video of the device in action, click here.

'Killing: the dead elephant in the living room

y2karl — Wed, 21 Jul 2004 02:11:40 -0800

'Enemy Contact. Kill 'em, Kill 'em'. The Price of Valor. Invisible Casualties. The Psychological Effects of Combat. The Psychological Consequences of Killing: Perpetration-Induced Traumatic Stress. Soldiers, Self-Defense, and Killing in War - (PDF). Psychological and Psychosocial Consequences of Combat and Deployment with Special Emphasis on the Gulf War. Military Leaders’ Obligation to Justify Killing in War. And, from last year, come The Killer Elite, From Hell to Baghdad - The Killer Elite Part II, and The Battle for Bagdhad - The Killer Elite Part III--Evan Wright's Rolling Stone articles recently published as Generation Kill. They are well worth re-reading in this context.

Cruelest Farmer Gets Two Years for Vet Attack

fenriq — Mon, 01 Mar 2004 12:42:30 -0800

'Cruelest Farmer' Jailed for Vet Attack
Roger Baker, dubbed Britain's "cruelest" farmer, has just gotten a two year sentence for attacking a vet and pushing her into "a mire of manure and cow urine." He then held her down in the nasty muck.
Given his history of violence and cruelty, doesn't two years seem a little light?

Folo-up: Dolphin activitsts arrested for cutting nets in Taiji, Japan.

planetkyoto — Wed, 19 Nov 2003 01:45:33 -0800

Dolphin activitsts arrested for cutting nets in Taiji, Japan Prominent on the news tonight in Japan, the Sea Shepherd activists discussed here are at it again. Is killing dolphins worse than killing pigs or other animals we eat?

sweathogging

stupidsexyFlanders — Thu, 02 Oct 2003 13:33:40 -0800

"Sweat-hogging" -- seeking out plus-size women for romantic encounters characterized by a remarkably virulent brand of hatred, cruelty, objectification and, it seems, not a little self-loathing. And I use the word "romantic" loosely. Anybody ever run across this pathology before? (via Romanesko)

leafy — Tue, 26 Mar 2002 06:30:59 -0800

"In a park in Bali, they found a monkey, a pig-tailed macaque, kept in a cage so small it could not lie down properly, and with one leg chained to the bars.

iceblink — Wed, 13 Feb 2002 16:43:21 -0800

Social Cruelty in Adults: Does High School Ever End? An upcoming ABCNews Special with John Stossel (airing Friday) explores peer pressure, being in the "in crowd", and the role that popularity plays not only during our years in the groves of academe but also in the professional workplace. We'll see John's report on Friday, but I wish to redirect this discussion to the mefi crowd: Were you in the "in crowd" during your high school/collegiate years or on the outside looking in? Did it even matter, and if it did, how and in what way? Has it played a distinct role in the person who you feel you've become?

Steven Den Beste — Tue, 11 Apr 2000 13:27:47 -0800

If this happened in the US, then the owners of the circus would be guilty of Manslaughter, at the very least, due to their negligence in not feeding the lions.

Of COURSE a starving lion is going to grab a kid; to a lion a human looks like lunch.