Cedar the goat and our attitude towards animals.

[Catherine]

Cedar the goat was part of the 4H program in the USA. Children are given a farm animal to raise. At the end of the program the animals is auctioned off for slaughter. Children learn to accept this. They raise the animal as a pet and then send it for slaughter. It prepares them to treat animals as commodities.

The eight year old girl who raised Cedar was not prepared to do this. Her mother offered to buy Cedar and she took him home. The sheriff's deputies came and took Cedar and had him slaughtered right away. In their minds Cedar was stolen property that needed to be returned.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/artic...livestock/

This whole story really shows up our attitudes towards animals. We think of them as pets to love or animals to be eaten. In order to have people willing to raise animals for food, children have to be trained to think that way.

They would not allow an exception in the case of Cedar. He is just one goat, but if they let one child keep the animal they love, other children might want to keep their animals. The whole system could break down and people might not be willing to raise animals for food. People might not be willing to kill animals for food. One child got hurt to preserve the system, but I think all the children are hurt by the system.