Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
It's fiction. No elephants were harmed in the writing of the book  . Why not mention the thousands of human beings who die in the war at the end of the book? Isn't that equally distasteful? |
Very obviously there is a chasm of difference between a herd of elephants slaughtered for giggles and a war between humans. The latter is called warfare, and is potentially a fair fight, while the former is senseless, wasteful carnage. You might equally erroneously compare the murder of defenseless civilians with warfare. Is the difference not glaringly obvious to you?
In any case, I found the mass slaughter of animals so off-putting that I put the book down. I don't think this is moral unique to modern sensibilities. I recall reading a memoir by an American Indian who deplored the unnecessary slaughter of animals.