In the interests of dog and animal welfare, it is time that humankind stopped comparing the ill-treatment of people with the typical treatment of dogs. This is what the phrase “to be treated worse than the dog” means. It implies, very strongly, that dogs are treated badly. It is shameful because it is an admission that humankind treats dogs very badly. It puts dogs at the bottom of the league in terms of how we treat them. If you want to treat somebody really badly you treat them as you would treat a dog. That cannot be right and this ghastly, old-fashioned phrase must be dumped as soon as possible. A variant is “to be treated like a dog” i.e. appallingly. Not good either.
It was used today in a headline on Sky News. The headline is “Uighurs treated worse than dogs in Chinese camps, people’s tribunal hears”. It’s a headline which makes a good point and all the reports points to Uighurs being treated appallingly despite the usual Chinese denials. Their treatment of this ethnic group has been described as genocide.
But it’s about time we stopped using this ridiculously old-fashioned and outdated phrase which undermines the welfare of dogs. It almost condones the ill-treatment of dogs because the ill-treatment of dogs is the benchmark for the abuse of a person or a group of people or animals.
The “worse than dogs” metaphor was used at an independent tribunal in London which is assessing whether China’s alleged human rights abuses constitute genocide. An interpreter at the tribunal said: “Guards in the camp did not treat the prisoners as human beings. They were treated less than dogs.”
It is stating that people should automatically treat humans better than dogs. What kind of relationship are we meant to have with dogs and other animals? Do they have to be second class or third class or at the bottom of the list when it comes to welfare and good treatment? It’s time for the human race to grow up and step up to a much better relationship with all animals and in particular dogs, where in the Third World they are often working dogs and ill-treated, it seems to me, judging by what I read on the Internet.
There are certainly some horror stories coming out of China which makes me want to puke. The cat and dog fur trade is one example. Complete horror story. The debasing of humankind to the lowest common denominator; to rank cruelty. P.S. There are many excellent dog owners in China but why do they allow such cruelty carry on in such a transparent way? Unless the average citizens try and stop animal cruelty through forcing the introduction of animal welfare laws, they are complicit.
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