[nagdu] Animal Advocate Calls Blind Guide Dog Users Cruel &unfi

helene ryles dreamavdb at googlemail.com
Mon Mar 9 21:17:57 UTC 2009


Ron: I'm not a great fan of those visual similator things.
Particularly not the blind folds. You don't really get to experience
what it is to be blind. You only expeience what it is like to be a
newly blind person which is tough but life doesn't stay that way. You
adapt and learn blind skills.

I agree with Buddy that we don't want people to think of blindness as
some sort of tragedy. We need to think of blindness as just another
way of life. Wether a person chooses a dog, a cane or both is entirely
up to them.

I want no part in arguements like this: "PETA are being horrible to
poor blind people who need there dogs. How would they like it if they
were blind etc etc..."

It reaks because:
A: It assumes blindness as a tragedy which it isn't.
B: It assumes we need dogs which we don't.
C: It assumes that people who care about animals do because they don't
have any problems of their own which is also wrong. They might have
problems that are even worse then blindness. It does happen.

We need to argue from a less emotional standpoint:
Some blind people benifit from guide dog guardianship and the  dogs
benifit from being guide dogs (so long as they are treated well) since
they can be with their guardians more often then pet dogs are. Also
keeping a dog as a guide is no more cruel then keeping a dog as a pet.
If you just base your arguement on the worst case sinario then they
could both be considered as unethnical. A pet ownership more so then a
guide dog ownership.

Helene.

On 09/03/2009, Ron Davidson <fuzzy_1 at cox.net> wrote:
> I  think it is wrong as well to wish for someone to go blind. I do allot of
> classroom work with educating students of all ages about blindness and the
> history and use of guide dogs. The best lesson I use is when we put
> simulator glasses on the students and they have to complete certain task
> wearing them. The glasses vary using all types of vision diseases and some
> are total blind. The students come away with a better understanding of what
> it is like in everyday life. I think the best thing that could be done is
> for these people like these blow hards to take a walk in our shoes for
> awhile and they may change their toon. Just a thought.
>
>
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