If you haven’t turned on a t.v. in the past month, I’ll give you an update: American football star Mike Vick has pleaded guilty to leading a dogfighting ring.
Side Note: Apparently this guy didn’t get the memo either
However according to Cultural Relativism, dogfighting isn’t necessarily wrong. While it may be wrong in the U.S. as well as Ireland and the UK to name a few countries, if Mr. Vick wanted to take his dogfighting operation to say, Japan (except in Tokyo), India, and most countries in Latin America (wikipedia link), he would be morally right to do so.
The problem with this argument is that the majority of the world thinks that training a domestic animal to fight others of its kind is morally wrong. The fact that most countries have statutes protecting the treatment of animals affirms that there is a definitive moral truth on this issue. It’s one thing to train a dog to protect one’s land, family, and property, but to train them to fight one another is just plain wrong.
What does the cultural relativist have to say about this? According to cultural relativists, and Ron Burgundy, “Sometimes you just have to look yourself in the mirror and say…When in Rome…”
I agree with your argument that different cultures have the understanding that dogfighting is “normal” and “right”. You could also tie this into lets say cock fighting in other countries where cockfighting is just as common as dogfighting is in the US. Its illegal but people still love the sport.
Comment by baldy1 — September 18, 2007 @ 3:20 pm
I like how you showed an example of how training dogs to fight to protect one’s home and family is morally correct according to CR, because most people here in America would believe it is acceptable to train a dog for that purpose. Now CR would say that if most of the people believe this is morally correct then it is within our culture.
Comment by veesfly — September 18, 2007 @ 9:59 pm
I like how you added that the majority of the world doesn’t agree with dog fighting. Although according to CR, dogfighting can’t be morally wrong considering each culture has its own morals, but the fact is we live in America, were we do find this treatment of animals to be morally wrong. As you added most cultures agree on training an animal to fight its own is found to be morally wrong gives a strong argument against Vick’s behavior even if he did use a CR defense.
Comment by Vinay D. — September 18, 2007 @ 10:48 pm