4 ms·
Stalin had a saying, I paraphrase: One death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic. I think the reaction to Laika's demise illustrated this. The exac
by Theodores 9y ago
Stalin had a saying, I paraphrase:
One death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic.
I think the reaction to Laika's demise illustrated this.
The exact quantity of dogs 'put to sleep' in 1964 in the USA is not known. However, I am sure that many thousands were 'put to sleep' every single day, with more than a million dogs euthanised in the USA over the year because that is what happens.
Incidentally, the last shuttle disaster (Challenger, 2003) was bad news for 13 rats, eight garden orb weaver spiders, five silkworms and three cocoons, four Medaka fish eggs, three carpenter bees, 15 harvester ants and an assortment of fish. Plus the human crew.
I am sure all of the animals all had names. There was no mass outpouring of emotion though or letters to the New York Times saying how cruel it was to put them on the Space Shuttle given the likeliness of it going badly wrong.
- tim333 9y agoIt was still sad and bit unnecessary though. Stalin wasn't really known for his ethics.
- jotm 9y agoDid you miss the part about strays literally being killed off everyday (then and today for that matter)? How is sending a dog to space unnecessary by any means compared to that...
- tim333 9y agoUnnecessary in that the Americans were able to do moon landings without leaving any dogs in orbit.
- dominotw 9y ago>Stalin had a saying, I paraphrase: > One death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic. I don't think there is ever a record of him saying this.
- enlightenedfool 9y agoHumans are funny in a way. Mourn and get emotional about dogs and pets and mercilessly slaughter chicken, cows and pigs everyday.
- wruza 9y agoI think the perspective is more cynical: they mourn and reflect on “sad news” instead of actual events. Everyone knows that there is help needed to make human/animal situation more sane (in many senses of sane), but most of the help is putting likes on fb or choosing single data points to resolve. Prove me wrong, but I think that sane relationships with animals should come from cold mind weighting statistical decisions (no matter if you’re going to eat, pet or test them), not from emotional sort of hypocrisy of either pet/slaughter way.