Boycott the US?

Something about my (and everyone else’s) call to boycott China wasn’t sitting well with me last night. I’m an advocate of not reprimanding or punishing other people for something I do myself, and the boycott smacked of hypocrisy to me.

I deconstructed, and here’s what I found:

• The slaughter of the dogs–inexcusable. My feelings on that didn’t change.
• Boycotting because of the dog slaughter–that was the problem.
• Why?
• We here in the USA have industries that are nothing more than institutionalized forms of hideous cruelty. Over 10 BILLION animals are created in this country just to be maimed, tortured, and slaughtered, for food that we do not need to eat and is unhealthy. Yet, we choose to point the finger at China for its draconian treatment of animals.
• The efficient factory farms that use animals like products in a manufacturing plant are for some reason left off of the compassion train.
• I’m not sure the beating of the dogs is any worse than what we do for sport. At least the dogs died. Our dogs who race die a much slower death, as do our horses who are forced to race, our marine mammals held captive in "amusement" parks, and our bulls who are forced to participate in the "sport" of rodeo.

This doesn’t mean you can’t be outraged and boycott China. Or Spain. Or anywhere else, if you find good reason. But while we condemn their behavior, we should also look at our own. We don’t have many instances of cruelty in the streets, but we do have a culture that has come to depend on it.