Letters
From Animal Defenders of Westchester (ADOW)

We advocate on all animal protection and exploitation issues, including experimentation, factory farming, rodeos, breeders and traveling animal acts.

Cruelty crosses lines

Letter as published on NY Daily News
November 21, 2014

Tuckahoe, N.Y.: I would go one step further than Patrick Blanchfield’s excellent op-ed, “The masculine mistake,” and say that men and women are both being taught to bully the most vulnerable in society — animals, who have no voice whatsoever. It begins in grade school, when children are desensitized and forced to cut up animals — and sometimes actually kill live ones — as a class requirement, or face a failing grade. Children are now encouraged by the state to hunt and kill animals, and cruelty to animals by children is considered merely a “prank,” while those who won’t participate are ridiculed.

Coupled with accepted, violent hazing rituals, is it any wonder that animal cruelty is at an all-time high, along with kids committing suicide due to bullying? There’s a simple answer: Teach children to treat all beings with kindness and respect. 

Kiley Blackman

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