why are people overreacting to kurt zouma incident?

So he should be held to account for kicking and slapping an animal, but others shouldn't be held to account for paying for animals to be killed for food?

If you eat meat this wekeend, that animal will certainly have been treated far worse than Zouma treated his cat.

So he should be held to account for kicking and slapping an animal, but others shouldn't be held to account for paying for animals to be killed for food?

If you eat meat this wekeend, that animal will certainly have been treated far worse than Zouma treated his cat.

How on earth do you not see the quantiative difference between abusing an animal for some perverse thrill and humanely killing it for food ?

Would you really say that the intent to needlessly kill an animal for food is any better than abusing an animal for fun?

I am disgusted with Zouma as it was cruel. I am a pet lover. I respond instinctively and emotionally to this and I just think it is cruel.

I don't think that all animals that are slaughtered for food are necessarily always killed or treated humanely, though.

However, whilst I can see the point of view expressed here that, for some, it seems outrageous that meat-eaters are upset about Zouma's abuse of his cat when they eat animals that exist to provide food for humans on the basis those animals could be seen as being treated badly at times, I think people who eat meat should be allowed to feel outrage at the pain the cat was in. People make different choices about their priorities and beliefs.

I am glad that there has been such a reaction to Zouma's cruelty.

It is also good to see passion from people who think about the rights of the animals we eat.

I am not a vegan btw.

Do you accept that they are different things with different motivations?

Just to clarify, I don't think that you can't react with sadness and anger to animal abuse if you're not a vegan. Meat-eating is a part of UK culture, and people are brought up eating meat without ever really ruminating about it. I'm glad that you're a pet lover and you see the cruelty in kicking a cat.

Like Paul McCartney once said, if slaughterhouses had glass walls, then everyone would be vegetarian. In essence, it's easier to react with emotion to something you can see (a cat getting abused on film), rather than something that happens behind closed doors and is just something you buy in a supermarket.

The NYTimes had a piece yesterday showing the cruel way that chickens are grown in the US. It was almost tear-inducing. But, tbh, I can't afford free-range chicken I don't think that means I can't care about someone kicking a cat. They are very different scenarios.

The NYTimes had a piece yesterday showing the cruel way that chickens are grown in the US. It was almost tear-inducing. But, tbh, I can't afford free-range chicken I don't think that means I can't care about someone kicking a cat. They are very different scenarios.

I am not vegetarian. I find this all difficult. The way I approach it is I don't usually eat meat, as I worry about the way animals that are killed for meat may be treated in case it is not humane (I don't think animals like this are always treated humanely) other than eating free range chicken (in the hope such chickens have been better treated than battery farmed ones).

I am still glad there is such outrage to the cruel treatment of the cat.

How on earth do you not see the quantiative difference between abusing an animal for some perverse thrill and humanely killing it for food ?

If Zouma had stunned his cat and then ate it, would that have been less cruel?

It is expensive. I get them free range from Aldi for 5 pounds when I eat chicken. It is a lot cheaper for free range chicken there.

You found the sight of poulty farming to be cruel. That's good. The obvious next step is to stop funding the propagation of that which you find cruel.



I think you're very close to going all the way. However, you seem to think that there is a "humane" way of killing something. What does the word humane really mean to you? And how do you picture humane slaughter in your mind?

You found the sight of poulty farming to be cruel. That's good. The obvious next step is to stop funding the propagation of that which you find cruel.

I am disgusted with Zouma as it was cruel. I am a pet lover. I respond instinctively and emotionally to this and I just think it is cruel.

I don't think that all animals that are slaughtered for food are necessarily always killed or treated humanely, though.

However, whilst I can see the point of view expressed here that, for some, it seems outrageous that meat-eaters are upset about Zouma's abuse of his cat when they eat animals that exist to provide food for humans on the basis those animals could be seen as being treated badly at times, I think people who eat meat should be allowed to feel outrage at the pain the cat was in. People make different choices about their priorities and beliefs.

I am glad that there has been such a reaction to Zouma's cruelty.

It is also good to see passion from people who think about the way animals are treated that we eat.

I am not a vegan btw.

Good point. I don't know the answers.

Would you really say that the intent to needlessly kill an animal for food is any better than abusing an animal for fun?

Pigs and Chickens are killed using gas, cows are stunned to death. I'm not sure how that constitutes 'humanely killing'. It's killing an animal that wants to live so you can have a meal that lasts 10 minutes, when there are alternatives available that don't involve killing animals.

If Zouma had stunned his cat and then ate it, would that have been less cruel?

What Zouma did was obviously bad. It was incredibly cruel. What I don't get is how people can be outraged at what he did, while actively supporting the far crueler treatment of other animals.