The Truth About Food Industry Factory Farms, Big Ag, Animals
Tribute To A Dog by George Graham Vest
George Graham Vest (December 6, 1830 – August 9, 1904) was a U.S. politician, born in Frankfort, Kentucky, he was known for his skills in oration and debate. George Vest was a lawyer in Sedalia, Missouri, a Congressman and then a US Senator. He is best known for his "a man's best friend" closing arguments from the trial in which damages were sought for the killing of a dog named Old Drum on October 18, 1869. Vest was asked to represent Charles Burden the owner of Old Drum in the case that would make him famous, Burden v. Hornsby.
In the trial Vest was the lawyer for Burden whose hunting dog, a foxhound named Drum (or Old Drum), had been killed by a sheep farmer, Leonidas Hornsby. The farmer (Burden's brother-in-law) had previously announced his intentions to kill any dog found on his property. During the trial Vest stated that he would "win the case or apologize to every dog in Missouri." Vest's "Eulogy on the Dog" is one of the most enduring passages of purple prose in American courtroom history (this partial transcript has survived):
- "Gentlemen of the jury: The best friend a man has in this world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name, may become traitors to their faith. The money that a man has, he may lose. It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it the most. A man's reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honor when success is with us may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads.
The one absolutely unselfish friend that a man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him and the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous is his dog. A man's dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master's side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer, he will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounters with the roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey through the heavens.
If fortune drives the master forth an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him to guard against danger, to fight against his enemies, and when the last scene of all comes, and death takes the master in its embrace and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by his graveside will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even to death."
1. video: Lucent - documentary film - AFR
Lucent - documentary film - The Aussie Farms Repository
CHINA political perversion, not culture, created the Dog Meat Trade
CHINA: How it was a political perversion, not culture, that led to the Dog Meat Trade as we know it. nemmar.page.link/454
By Sarah Brownlee
If you speak to the average person in western society about the Dog Meat Trade in China, you will usually be met with the same response. Dismissive or impassioned, the answer is almost always the same: “It’s in their culture.”
Sadly, very, very few people know that the dog-eating trade in China has absolutely nothing to do with culture. Subsequently, this mass ignorance does nothing to help the millions of dogs that are tortured and slaughtered for consumption every year. Both international governments and citizens alike do not dare criticise another’s “culture” for fear of being deemed racist. The result? A country with zero animal welfare laws, countless dogs being burned, boiled and skinned alive on a daily basis, and millions of grieving, weeping dog-lovers and owners throughout the country who have had their dogs snatched and killed for the trade, and are utterly powerless to act, because they have a government that simply will not listen to them. For it is true that the majority of these dogs are stolen pets – and why? Because if the dog is under-nourished, this could cause a potential health hazard for the consumer, and if a dog trader wants to ensure his meat is plump and well-fed, he only needs to look to the beloved pet of a family home where the dog has been cared for and looked after. This adds a whole new layer of sickening depravity to the trade; and even if it was in the name of culture, in what world is it morally or remotely acceptable to steal a person’s pet dog before hauling it off to the slaughterhouse?
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