Inverted Valued

Let's go off on a tangent here. I know that this is a bit belated but anyways.

Recently, a tiger at the San Francisco zoo jumped out of its exhibit, killed one young man and injured two others. The whole story can be found here. Here are some very important highlights:

“This whole thing has just been horrible,” said Ilona Montoya of San Bruno, celebrating her 60th birthday at the zoo. “It’s horrible, that poor tiger. I mean, I feel for the poor kid who got killed, but he had to do something to that tiger to get her that angry.”
[...]
At the zoo’s front gate, visitors have fashioned a small memorial to Tatiana, with flowers, stuffed animals and a golden scarf that reads “RIP Tati.” Two animal rights groups also planned a vigil for the tiger and Mr. Sousa, to commemorate “the two young victims who died on Christmas Day at the San Francisco Zoo.”

Just to put things into perspective, a tiger mauls three people and kills one of them but we should feel sorry for it since the 17 year old kid deserved it anyways. Now, I love animals and think that they are beautiful but there are limits. Many on the Loony Left seem to feel that animals and people are equal. Makes me think of PETA's 'Holocaust on Your Plate' campaign which equated the murder of 6 million Jews with the slaughter of millions of chickens each year, or their equally insiduous campaign showing black slaves juxtaposed with animals in chains. In the words of PETA's Ingrid Newkirk, "Six million Jews died in concentration camps, but six billion broiler chickens will die this year in slaughterhouses."

Newkirk once sent a letter to Yasser Arafat (yimach shemo) condemning his use of a cow in a suicide bombing attack on Israeli civilians. This letter didn't mention the tens of men, women and children blown up by the evil attack but kindly asked Arafat not to use animals anymore! The murder of people evokes no outcry but some are in an outrage over a dead cow. Kind of makes you wonder who the real animals are.

All of this is a case of inverted values. Darwinists, I have something to say to you: Humans are not simply evolved animals. Having a soul is not simply a quirk of nature like having opposable thumbs. Human beings were created in G-d's image and we are above animals. "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." (Genesis 1:26). Feast your eyes; the Maker of mankind and animals says that we have a dominion ove them. Of course we must respect animals and animal cruelty must be stopped, prevented or minimized. We have a mitzvah of tzaar baalei chayot, preventing animal cruelty. But there are limits. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, some people sent money to rescue animals left behind in the storm. Humans in New Orleans were dying but some thought that the abandonned animals were a priority! Or some people in Israel criticized the expellees of Gush Katif of "cruelty" for leaving behind some of their pets but the same self-righteous fools felt nothing over the expulsion of 7000 humans.

People, get a grip! Learn what's important and what's not. Otherwise, you're nothing better than an animal.