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What is the moral difference between dog fighting and (say) stag hunting?
As a qualification - I am not a supporter of Mike Vick, and I dont even think he is a valuable player for his team... but all the reaction to his alleged involvment in dog fighting seems to me to be extreme.
Stag hunting (with hounds) is certainly cruel... the stag is chased around for hours and certainly suffers. Dog hunting is certainly cruel as well. In both cases, a sentient animal is hurt and then usually killed as a human entertainment.
What is the real moral difference? Simply that dogs are animals we know as pets and stags are one's we call wild?
Maybe the "training" of the dog to fight involves a greater amount of cruelty, but to me this only effects the level of moral offence or its scale, not whether it is an offense at all.
I have no idea if he does... but if it came out that Brett Favre liked shooting deer - would there be such a reaction?
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"Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate,
for all things are plain in the sight of Heaven. For nothing
hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain
without being uncovered."
The Gospel of Thomas
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