{"id":117448,"date":"2026-06-22T12:08:58","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T17:08:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=117448"},"modified":"2026-06-22T12:08:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T17:08:58","slug":"117448","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=117448","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Key rule: Don\u2019t let weirdos run your society.<\/p>\n

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\u201cA possible referendum in Oregon on animal rights would end fishing, hunting, even pest control, just when Democrats are trying really hard not to be seen as \u2018weirdos again.’\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

I’m reading\u00a0“Protect Every Animal From Cruelty? Not in 2026, Oregon Democrats Say”<\/a>\u00a0(NYT).<\/p>\n

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The measure, known for now as Initiative Petition 28… would give all animals the same protections from cruelty that Oregon grants dogs and cats…. Hunting, trapping and fishing would be outlawed, along with scientific research on animals, lethal pest control and conventional livestock production….<\/div>\n
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The fight is in some ways very Oregon, long a proving ground for ideas that initially seemed politically impossible only to enter the mainstream, such as medical aid in dying, universal vote-by-mail and legalizing the hallucinogenic compound in magic mushrooms for therapy.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

When people think of “animals” \u2014 as in “I love animals!” \u2014 they’re not thinking about cockroaches and mosquitoes.<\/p>\n

ADDED:\u00a0According to Ballotopedia<\/a>, the initiative “Applies to mammals (including vermin), birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish.” So I think “lethal pest control” is meant to call to mind mice and rats, not the various troublesome insects. The NYT article says “all animals” and also, more than once, says “pest control.”<\/p>\n

In the comments here, Tom T. said, “Then would come the court decisions defining pet ownership as cruelty and outlawing it.” That got me looking into the argument that pet-keeping is a form of cruelty to animals. Here’s an interesting Vox article from 3 years ago:\u00a0“The case against pet ownership\/Why we should aim for a world with fewer but happier pets.”<\/a><\/div>\n
Excerpt:<\/div>\n
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We demand companionship with as little friction as possible, expecting our pets (especially dogs) to be docile and agreeable, and to adapt quickly to the human world, with its countless rules and norms that mean nothing to them. And then when they inevitably fail to do so at first, we deem their natural habits misbehavior in need of correction, or abandonment….<\/div>\n

Just how uneven the relationship is between pets and their human owners was demonstrated during the pandemic when, lonely and stuck at home,\u00a0one in five<\/a>\u00a0households adopted a new pet. As new pet owners returned to work, however, their newly lonely pets struggled with the sudden change,\u00a0showing high rates<\/a>\u00a0of chewing, digging, barking, escaping, pacing, hiding, and indoor urination and defecation. Our pets might not be so bored if they just had some autonomy, but having a pet means regularly denying it….<\/p>\n

Gary Francione and Anna Charlton, a firebrand animal rights couple who teach law at Rutgers University… have advocated for the abolition of pet ownership. \u201cDomesticated animals are completely dependent on humans, who control every aspect of their lives,\u201d they wrote in a\u00a0provocative essay<\/a>\u00a0for Aeon in 2016. \u201cUnlike human children, who will one day become autonomous, non-humans never will. That is the entire point of domestication \u2014 we want domesticated animals to depend on us. They remain perpetually in a netherworld of vulnerability, dependent on us for everything that is of relevance to them.\u201d…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Key rule: Don\u2019t let weirdos run your society. \u201cA possible referendum in Oregon on animal rights would end fishing, hunting, even pest control, just when Democrats are trying really hard not to be seen as \u2018weirdos again.’\u201d I’m reading\u00a0“Protect Every Animal From Cruelty? Not in 2026, Oregon Democrats Say”\u00a0(NYT). The measure, known for now as … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,80],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crap-for-brains","category-you-cant-make-this-up"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=117448"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117449,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117448\/revisions\/117449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=117448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=117448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=117448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}