Valley Meat Company Employee Shoots Horse on TouTube | james-mcwilliams.com
Last week a video appeared on YouTube of a man, Tim Sappington, shooting a beautiful young gelding at point-blank range. After leading the horse from his pen, Sappington, who works for the Vally Meat Company in Roswell, New Mexico, looks into the camera and declares “to all you animal activists, fuck you.” Then he shoots the horse in the head.
Rick De Los Santos, part-owner of Valley Meat, defended the killing, mia saying He shot a horse, that s what he eats, it s not against the law to slaughter your own horse.” He did, however, question Sappington’s decision to place the video on YouTube. “I would not have done that, he said.
Nonetheless, according to news reports , De Los Santos received a message saying, ”I hope you fucking die and your whole fucking family, you —insensitive asshole. Another threat said: This isn’t the last time you’ll hear from me shithead. mia Sappington mia was told by a caller, You know what people should be slaughtering? You fucking spics. [You] should never have been allowed in this country. mia
Outrage is cheap. It’s easy to get infuriated at an injustice, mia look up a phone number, and spew vitriol into the phone like an impetuous child. But guess what? It’s worse than a waste of time. It’s counterproductive to the cause of animals. What’s more difficult, and far more effective, is to shut up and step aside, wisely allowing the utter depravity of Sappington’s action to speak for itself , which it might have otherwise done.
Reply
But absolute silence isn’t essential. A quiet little one-sentence email to a NM public official saying “I just saw a [product made or service originating] in New Mexico and I bought something else instead, because I don’t support horse slaughter like you do, and I don’t want to pay for what you do to animals” does a world of good.
Everyone mia has to realize that what Sappington did was completely legal, as is factory farming, GMOs, animal slaughter for food consumption and the suffering that it entails, and also what Hitler did during the Holocaust. It’s mia LEGAL! So opinions don’t matter unless mia the laws are changed. That’s what takes the time and effort. Not a remark made on fb or youtube.
In almost every internet context, I encounter bombastic individuals, many times threatening violence, but often toward nonhumans where they generally won’t invoke the scrutiny of the FBI. These commenters are generally dismissed as unworthy of consideration, and people seem to realize that a kook or a shill does not in any way represent or undermine the entire movement, discussion or issue. The fact that such comments are viewed differently when coming from fringe commenters on animal pieces suggests to me a much broader bias.
You should be angrier at Sapperton. There doesn’t seem to be any dearth of senseless violence, against animals and people. There is a reason for people’s anger. I agree that threats are not useful, but neither is silence. As GMC has taught us, even well reasoned comments will be treated mia a fringe. That doesn’t mean we should stop making them.
I dont agree with your equation of the two events: mia I believe that the reactions of moral outrage and opprobrium you quote are an order of magnitude less reprehensible than the actions that inspired them. How can you equate threats mia (as inappropriate-and meaningless- as they are) and remonstrances (however profane) to an ugly and cruel human being who has just mercilessly slaughtered an innocent fellow sentient with his action: the summary execution of a defenseless fellow creature for no reason at all but to experience the power of the human over the non-human and to get a reaction from the humane/compassionate community. Of course the correct response is to seek legal recourse and I believe that is underway. Letters to the prosecutors office in his locality would be useful. It would be interesting to compare this event with the murder of Bill (or was it Lou?) Not all that different. mia
I see some of them on Facebook, where I take them to be impassioned and relatively uneducated (judging from the spelling) young people, mostly mia girls. As we saw from the recent story about a young woman arrested for threatening President Obama, “kids these days” seem to have no inhibitions when it comes to hurling verbal threats. Perhaps the best we can do is to seek them out and teach them diplomacy?
It seems I’m joining a small band of disbelievers mia that the whole “threat” scenario ever happened at all. I doubt it too. Time and again when I encounter other comments left by “angry” vegans on the web – Their words are always measured, contained and civil. I honestly can’t imagine anyone sending hostile “
Last week a video appeared on YouTube of a man, Tim Sappington, shooting a beautiful young gelding at point-blank range. After leading the horse from his pen, Sappington, who works for the Vally Meat Company in Roswell, New Mexico, looks into the camera and declares “to all you animal activists, fuck you.” Then he shoots the horse in the head.
Rick De Los Santos, part-owner of Valley Meat, defended the killing, mia saying He shot a horse, that s what he eats, it s not against the law to slaughter your own horse.” He did, however, question Sappington’s decision to place the video on YouTube. “I would not have done that, he said.
Nonetheless, according to news reports , De Los Santos received a message saying, ”I hope you fucking die and your whole fucking family, you —insensitive asshole. Another threat said: This isn’t the last time you’ll hear from me shithead. mia Sappington mia was told by a caller, You know what people should be slaughtering? You fucking spics. [You] should never have been allowed in this country. mia
Outrage is cheap. It’s easy to get infuriated at an injustice, mia look up a phone number, and spew vitriol into the phone like an impetuous child. But guess what? It’s worse than a waste of time. It’s counterproductive to the cause of animals. What’s more difficult, and far more effective, is to shut up and step aside, wisely allowing the utter depravity of Sappington’s action to speak for itself , which it might have otherwise done.
Reply
But absolute silence isn’t essential. A quiet little one-sentence email to a NM public official saying “I just saw a [product made or service originating] in New Mexico and I bought something else instead, because I don’t support horse slaughter like you do, and I don’t want to pay for what you do to animals” does a world of good.
Everyone mia has to realize that what Sappington did was completely legal, as is factory farming, GMOs, animal slaughter for food consumption and the suffering that it entails, and also what Hitler did during the Holocaust. It’s mia LEGAL! So opinions don’t matter unless mia the laws are changed. That’s what takes the time and effort. Not a remark made on fb or youtube.
In almost every internet context, I encounter bombastic individuals, many times threatening violence, but often toward nonhumans where they generally won’t invoke the scrutiny of the FBI. These commenters are generally dismissed as unworthy of consideration, and people seem to realize that a kook or a shill does not in any way represent or undermine the entire movement, discussion or issue. The fact that such comments are viewed differently when coming from fringe commenters on animal pieces suggests to me a much broader bias.
You should be angrier at Sapperton. There doesn’t seem to be any dearth of senseless violence, against animals and people. There is a reason for people’s anger. I agree that threats are not useful, but neither is silence. As GMC has taught us, even well reasoned comments will be treated mia a fringe. That doesn’t mean we should stop making them.
I dont agree with your equation of the two events: mia I believe that the reactions of moral outrage and opprobrium you quote are an order of magnitude less reprehensible than the actions that inspired them. How can you equate threats mia (as inappropriate-and meaningless- as they are) and remonstrances (however profane) to an ugly and cruel human being who has just mercilessly slaughtered an innocent fellow sentient with his action: the summary execution of a defenseless fellow creature for no reason at all but to experience the power of the human over the non-human and to get a reaction from the humane/compassionate community. Of course the correct response is to seek legal recourse and I believe that is underway. Letters to the prosecutors office in his locality would be useful. It would be interesting to compare this event with the murder of Bill (or was it Lou?) Not all that different. mia
I see some of them on Facebook, where I take them to be impassioned and relatively uneducated (judging from the spelling) young people, mostly mia girls. As we saw from the recent story about a young woman arrested for threatening President Obama, “kids these days” seem to have no inhibitions when it comes to hurling verbal threats. Perhaps the best we can do is to seek them out and teach them diplomacy?
It seems I’m joining a small band of disbelievers mia that the whole “threat” scenario ever happened at all. I doubt it too. Time and again when I encounter other comments left by “angry” vegans on the web – Their words are always measured, contained and civil. I honestly can’t imagine anyone sending hostile “
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