{"id":54871,"date":"2021-05-05T06:00:12","date_gmt":"2021-05-05T10:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=54871"},"modified":"2021-05-01T15:52:25","modified_gmt":"2021-05-01T19:52:25","slug":"animals-sexual-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2021\/05\/animals-sexual-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Animals’ Sexual Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Animal rights activists have concentrated mostly on animals\u2019 right to life.\u00a0 But now the concerns are extending to animals\u2019 sexual rights.<\/p>\n

Voters in both Colorado and Oregon are considering referendum petitions that would not only restrict the slaughter of livestock, but also define artificial insemination and the castration of bulls as illegal \u201csex acts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Colorado proposal<\/a> would require that animals live at least 25% of their natural lives before they can be slaughtered.\u00a0 It defines the natural lifespans as 20 years for a cow, 15 years for a pig, six years for a rabbit, and eight years for a chicken.\u00a0 Beef cattle are usually slaughtered after two years.\u00a0 The referendum would allow that only after five years.<\/p>\n

\n

The Oregon referendum<\/a>, though, would go much further.\u00a0 Animals could only be used for food after they die of natural causes.<\/p>\n

As the news story on the Colorado petition points out, the meat of older animals is touch and unpalatable.\u00a0 In Oregon, it might also be diseased.<\/p>\n

Both petitions also would forbid the way the livestock industry breeds animals.\u00a0 The Colorado proposal expands the definition of a sex act with an animal\u2013that is, the statute that forbids bestiality\u2013to include \u201cany intrusion or penetration, however slight, with an object or part of a person\u2019s body into an animal\u2019s anus or genitals.\u201d\u00a0 That rules out artificial insemination\u2013which is used extensively today to breed the best livestock\u2013as well as embryo transplants and even pregnancy checks.<\/p>\n

The Oregon referendum would classify those practices, as well as the castration of bulls and other male animals, as sexual assault.<\/p>\n

The measures would, illogically, exempt the spaying and neutering of pets.\u00a0 Why forbidding artificial insemination would not apply to humans\u2013who, as animal rights activists keep reminding us, are also animals\u2013is not clear, but the fertility clinics do not seem threatened.<\/p>\n

The goal, of course, is to shut down the two states\u2019 large livestock and dairy industries.\u00a0 Though farmers and ranchers are alarmed at the prospect, it\u2019s hard to imagine a majority of voters in those states, blue though they are, to go along with that.\u00a0 But a leader of the Colorado group that is fighting the petition says that he has little doubt that it will get the required\u00a0124,632 signatures necessary to get on the ballot.\u00a0 Oregon requires that a referendum petition get 112,000 signatures to go before the voters.<\/p>\n

\n
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One of the promoters of the measure in Oregon is undeterred by the unlikelihood that the referendum will pass.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ll just keep putting it before voters,\u201d he said, \u201cuntil a better world is here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, Americans might someday feel so guilty about what they eat that these kinds of laws could go into effect.\u00a0 Farmers and ranchers would do well to frame the issues somewhat differently.<\/p>\n

Among human beings, the push for sexual rights have mutated into gender issues.\u00a0 The same thing could happen with animals.<\/p>\n

The difficulty is that permissible sexual behavior hinges on consent, and it is difficult to ascertain animal consent.\u00a0 And much of the sexual assault animals suffer from comes from other animals.<\/p>\n

Bulls are notorious for their displays of toxic masculinity.\u00a0 With their proclivity to violence, they establish dominance over a herd, thus imposing a patriarchal social system.\u00a0 And their sexual aggressiveness is highly inappropriate.\u00a0 This makes the case that we should<\/em> castrate bulls.<\/p>\n

But, to make that palatable to contemporary sensibilities, farmers and ranchers should call that procedure \u201cgender reassignment surgery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly, the case for artificial insemination could be made on feminist grounds.\u00a0 That procedure allows heifers to enjoy the fulfillment of motherhood without being subjugated to the male of the species.<\/p>\n

The culling of males\u2013after castration makes them better meat-producers\u2013is already commonplace in the livestock industry.\u00a0 The male animals are slaughtered, while the female animals are preserved for breeding purposes.\u00a0 Artificial insemination means that\u00a0 a large numbers of males is not necessary, further contributing to the slaughter of males.\u00a0 Here, too, a feminist argument might be persuasive in justifying the meat-packing plants.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

HT:\u00a0 Larry Haws<\/p>\n

Image by\u00a0Capri23auto<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0Pixabay<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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