Theoria

The Ottawa Citizen ran a highly misleading and factually inaccurate article on MacLaren’s OSPCA bill today. I wrote the following Letter to the Editor. Re: “MPP revises his bill to curtail powers of OSPCA” Dear Editor, The article on Bill 47 makes constant mention of “animal rights.” This mention is both misleading and false: there is [...]

“Cats’-meat men peddled their wares from door to door: these itinerate vendors sold skewers of horsemeat used for cat (and dog) food, customarily trundling their goods in a wheelbarrow and often depicted as trailed by a horde of extremely interested felines. In the nineteenth century, a cats’-meat man reported that there were twice as many [...]

I’ve been pushing the thesis that pets are not animals, which explains why pets are relatively well protected by the law while all other animals are not protected by the law–even minimally; for instance, how common agricultural practices are exempt from the purview of the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. [...]