When I was a kid, most of the animals we owned had ear piercings, and it never seemed to bother them — we gave the cows ear tags which were IDs, but more so insecticides, so they were quite likely better off for them. I also remember branding the horn buds off our goat kids — which they definitely did not like, but were also likely better off for having it done.
That said, I’m not so convinced that this rat is better off with his body modification and I’m actually surprised it didn’t bother him. However, the rat’s keeper writes, “it healed quickly and with the tiny jewelery I put in it, he didn’t even notice he had it.”
On one hand, I think we live in a culture of pervasive animal cruelty, be it the simple reality of killing and eating animals, or the even more perverse reality of professing to love animals, keeping one as a slave while having others killed to feed that slave, so I’m not convinced on the scale of things little Dawson the pierced rat is the biggest problem for real animal lovers. On the other hand, I can predict the response to this post already…
Comments
166 responses to “How do you feel about this?”
Very lame.
poor thing, so unnecessary -10/10
that is the Cutest THING!!
I wish I could pierce my dogs septum to match mine… that’s be awesome, or even her ears.
But then again I’m all for pet mods, i.e. nail polish, pet safe fur dye, tattoos, ect.
That’s disgusting. I know a lot of people on here don’t agree with, say, nonconsensual circumcision at birth or piercing the ears of newborns, and this is no different. Using your status as a bigger, stronger animal in order to inflict pain on your pet because you think it makes them look cuter or makes you more “hardcore” or anything else is an abuse of power, just like inflicting nonconsensual harm on any creature; child, full-grown human or otherwise. Animals are beautiful the way they are and it doesn’t make sense to take advantage of your position as their caretaker to cause them pain for your own purposes.
I don’t think there’s any reason to do it, though i’m not sure it’s cruelty exactly. What I will say is… what the hecks gonna happen when little ratty scratches and rips the ring out, ya know?”
#49 Oh Im so sorry for not taking lightly on tortureing animals, you might think its “tha bomb” but Im not that hip on the subject. + I was kinda drunk when I wrote that but my feelings are pretty much the same.
Very uncool.
Ooh I remember disbudding baby goats! And when the little baby boys needed to lose their nads they sure made a fuss (but I probably would too)
Also, I’m assuming that thing through it’s ear is a tiny needle and not the jewellery it usually wears.
Animals being no different than people, why not? How many people get pierced or tattooed when they pass out, just because someone else can? Plenty. Babies get pierced all the time. I really doubt the rat cares. But if it looked irritated by it, I would take it out, or it probably would rip it out itself. Looks nice though, I have to admit.
somehow this reminds me of a “consensual non-consent” discussion i had recently…
#36 said it all, for me.
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
And with that, I’m done.
That poor animal. He’s going to go to scratch his ear or groom himself and rip it right out. Poor baby, I hope his idiot owner has the sense to at least take him to the vet when that happens.
Also, if he’s being kept alone, the person is double-stupid; if he’s being kept with a buddy or two, as he should be, it’s triple-stupid because when rats groom each other they are likely to rip it out–either by accident, or by OOH SHINY *tugtugtug*.
The person who did this is a freakin’ idiot and deserves an aluminum bat to the head. *TINK*
It’s fucking sick to pierce animals!! I can^t understand those people who do this! It makes me angry!
This is the first time I can honestly say that something on here is FUCKED UP!
When I was 16 I had traveled to a Rainbow gathering and while there I met this dumb chick that had pierced her cats ear with a generic earring and it was seriously infected, to the point the cat could not walk straight. It took me all of 3 minutes from the time I met the girl with this cat,told her she should take care of it and she disagreed… Then I told the girl if she was not going to seek care for her cat,I was taxing her cat, to knocking her out because she said no you wont, and then I walked away with the cat to take it to the vet.
The vet had to remove a piece of the cats ear and put it on serious antibiotics and the cat “Elvis” grew up with a chunk missing out of his ear at my dads house where people loved and took care of him until he passed away.
I feel very strongly against piercing pets.
Tattooing a spay mark on them is one thing, but putting something in their ear or other body parts is wrong in so many ways. Not to mention infection and other problems that can happen due to this childish antic.
*cuddles her rat and tells her how lucky she is to be in a loving home rather than with some stupid fuck who would stick needles in her delicate little ears*
#103, you have a very disturbed view of ‘cute’.
Poor little dumbo dude. I do not approve.
I’ve had rats for 6 years. Rats are very stoic and usually will not indicate pain unless the pain is sudden and severe (like getting a toe pinched in the cage door).
The rat can’t give consent, and the piercing isn’t for something necessary (like an ID tattoo). Therefore, it’s wrong. Putting an animal through pain for a pet owner’s own sense of aesthetics is cruel.
I think it was a horrible idea to do that. A lot of animals are too dumb to know why they’re feeling pain or what caused it, so inflicting this on a rat has the same principal as hurting a human baby, they know their in pain but they don’t understand how or why. It’s completely unnecessary.
So let me get this straight, you mutilated an animal’s body for the benefit of your own human sense of aesthetics? You Sir, are a real piece of shit. If I get to meet you in real life I’m going to run you over with my car and then set your corpse on fire. F— YOU.
Awesome! I bet the other rats are scared of him now.
“it’s sort of hard for a pig to be happy and healthy once it’s dead, don’t you think?”
it’s also not feeling any more pain when it’s DEAD. i get the argument, 100%, but i’m tired of hearing that if you eat meat, you can’t have an opinion on ANIMAL CRUELTY. i think animal cruelty is, and always will be disgusting, but eating the occasional hamburger doesn’t mean i go around kicking dogs in their faces in my spare time. fuck..
i think the rat thing is a joke, and this person should not be allowed to keep animals in their care.
ps, not accusing anabot at all of making that argument, just the hypocrisy comments of others.
humans are so arrogant. the way we fuck with every other species.
I agree with 4 and 5
one word…
consent!!!!
(what a twat!)
Do none of you realise that Shannon posts things like this to amuse himself when you all get up on your high horses?
And I have pets. If my pets are slaves then they’re some of the goddamn laziest, fattest slaves i’ve ever encountered.
“besides, vegetables are icky. i subside almost entirely on muffins. muffins are delicious, and they keep me skinny.”
And now we know why the great muffin herds, that once roamed the land in swarms numbering in the billions, are no more.
Has any one ever seen what rats can do to each others ears? Bah. I devoted years of my life to the rescue and care of animals. I also let new born puppies sucked my fingers while the vet.s I worked for cut off thier tails with industrial stregth nail clippers. Whats wrong? Its a little bit of nothing.
what the hell is wrong with you?
Shannon mentioning slavery made me laugh. If anything, you are a slave to your pet(s).
You are in charge of your pets well-being. I’m not bothered by the rats ear being pierced, but I do believe that it was an irresponsible thing to do.
ok now witch is right or wrong
dogs cats rats whateva are free
in the wild they shit pis were ever they want but who tell them were they shit were they can piss shit we even give them commands 2 sit roll over etc for food thats slave labour 2 animals who shud be free
so pearcing and owning a pet is the same thing we own it it is are slave
or shud they be free in the wild ?
Killing and eating animals =/= animal cruelty; that is the cycle of predator and prey. The methods used in most modern slaughter, however, are arguably cruel.
Death as part of the natural cycle to nourish another being is not meaningless (nor are castration, etc, which serve a purpose towards that end). Animal cruelty is meaningless infliction of pain with no practically beneficial end goal.
so I’m assuming at everyone with a “awww poor rat” comment has a die-hard vegan diet and never purchases leather, wool, gelatin, honey, toothpaste and all the other little things that slip through the cracks of animal cruelty?
probally not. Chances are you saw a fuzzy thing with a pin it’s ear and forgot your a hidious murderer for a minute.
“yes, this cuteness has an interesting effect on humans… makes them… weak.”
Chances are any makeup your wearing, the shampoo you use in your hair, was testing out on the open wounds of a little guy like this.
So until we’re all living in the woods eating twigs and our homes are heated with the power of love… shut up.
On the other hand, the people demanding this dude be drawn and quartered and comparing cared for and loved pets to slaves are, frankly, fucking nuts and really need to take a step back from their frothing rhetoric.
I just wonder who this guy did this for? The rat? I’m pretty sure the rat isn’t going to notice the jewellery until its ripped out of its ear. “DUDE, look I pierced my rat, am I not the coolest???” Getting kudos for something that is stupid and not-even-cool-looking. Lame.
And to whoever said its not a big deal because cats come home with chunks ripped out their ears – That’s animals behaving like animals, not humans beings douchebags.
One word: consent.
makes me want to hug the little dude.
i agree with the comments above
I would like to know how anybody can tell whether the rat likes it or not, based on this picture. A lot of people have said how unhappy the rat looks…but I keep staring at the picture and I don’t see that. I see a kind of blurry rat face, he looks like he’s sniffing something. Can somebody tell me what I should be looking for to know whether the rat likes it or not?
Also…how far we’ve come since early 2004, when everything in the Animal Piercing galleries got marked “we don’t condone this”.
If I could be convinced that this rat gave informed consent to this then OK, otherwise its just degrading the rat for a bit of cheap entertainment for us ‘superior’ beings. Not on
I have three pet rats, and have had many. I would never modify them. My companion animals can’t say, “Hey, you know what would look sweet? A 18g industrial in my left ear.”
It may be relevant that I’m a vegan, but I just think it’s entirely wrong due to a lack of consent.
Oh, and the rat’s body language and stance is not a comfortable one. It’s also not a horribly pained one. It’s a WTF one.. probably because it has a needle in it’s ear and it’s being (poorly) photographed with a bright flash, which is alarming to mostly blind rodents. Poor squish. His dumbo ears are bad enough for proper hearing, now he has some metal in it weighing it down? Not good.. I hope there aren’t any predator animals in that house.
no conset was given.
I’m against it. It’s sad.
Shannon, I think based on the unanimous response in favour of NOT sticking sharp objects through rats ears because it’s “huh huh, cool maaaan”, you’ve not sparked a funny debate that you may have hoped for, but rather saddened a lot of people (both meat eaters and vegans alike) by this obvious lack or regard and responsibility towards the rat. If you really wanted to rile the hardcore animal rights activists, show someone eating a hamburger, and not something that can easily be mimicked by some lemming out there who might think this is cool. I think you can see that this is not really debateable, and your argument regarding enslaving animals as pets is pretty weak against this type of behaviour. Not that you should care, but you’ve totally lost points for me.
I think killing animals an eatting them in much more ‘cruel’ than peircing their ear, but they are so damned tasty… So really this is pale in comaprison to other things we do, if I eat animals dead flesh it would be pretty hypocritical to call this cruel. I am sure this has not harmed the animal mentally beyond replair.
I don’t think i agree with it, like people have said above… the animal didnt ask for it… I’m sure if it was conscious for the piercing it hurt it… animals are more likely to snag piercings and such as well.
Atrocious.
I hope that piercing doesn’t get caught on something and tear the rat’s ear.
The owner should be ashamed of themself. This poor animal doesn’t understand why you stabbed it in the ear with a needle. Your pet rats trusts in you to care for him… and look at what you’ve done. I hope you’re ashamed. I am.
“Has any one ever seen what rats can do to each others ears? Bah. I devoted years of my life to the rescue and care of animals. I also let new born puppies sucked my fingers while the vet.s I worked for cut off thier tails with industrial stregth nail clippers. Whats wrong? Its a little bit of nothing.”
The rats do that to EACH OTHER, for dominance, food, etc. It’s a bit different than a big human overpowering a rat because they’re curious how a modification would look.
And why did you cut the puppies’ tails off? Don’t tell me…let me guess…FOR LOOKS. Unless the tail was irreversibly infected or cancerous, why is there a need to cut it off? So you can conform to how the breed is “supposed” to look? People like you make me sick.
All my mice have had ear “piercings” from either mites or getting into fights. (In retrospect, I really shouldn’t have been buying them from a place that -let- them get mites. I was young and callow and an idiot.) They didn’t really like having anything attached to their ears, though. Rats, being bigger, might not mind a small ring as much.
I would really like to know what gratification the owner of this animal got from puttng it through unnecessary pain? piercing anything / anyone who is incapable of making a conscious choice r about the piercing is wrong and surely a breach of human / animal rights? Also, wether rats do this kind of thing to eachother naturally, is in my opinion entirely irrelevant, inflictng pain on a creature who has no way of asking you to stop is simply lacking in care and regard for the animal, not to mention in intelligence.
FLEE (143), it’s these sort of threads that bring up very valid discussions, whether the participants are articulate, or whether they’re “hurr hurr” idiots. The fact of the matter is that this image and commentary that Shannon has presented has spurned a great deal of debate, much of which is quite interesting. There are no “points” to be won or lost here.