Groundhog Day

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about Groundhog Day (which was celebrated yesterday, Tuesday, February 2). I understand that it's rooted in "tradition" -- but this morning's Washington Post Express showed Punxsutawney Phil (the groundhog, of course) looking frightened as two hands, belonging to one of his handlers, held him high in the air after announcing Phil's weather forecast.

It's one thing to wait for a groundhog to emerge from his little home and try to gauge whether he was able to see his shadow... But it's quite another for humans to get actively involved and force the groundhog to endure fright and discomfort for the sake of our amusement. The poor little guy looked completely scared, with his feet flailing and his mouth open seemingly in shock!

There are other traditions that should be ended now that we Westerners think we're so "civilized." But tell me, how is bullfighting civilized? The bull is stabbed before being released into the arena, where he's provoked to charge at some guy wearing a silly-looking costume. It makes me think of the movie "Gladiator," when Joaquin Phoenix's character, the emperor, is about to fight Maximus (Russell Crowe) but goes to see him ahead of time and stabs him with a poisonous dagger, thus ensuring -- or so he believes -- his victory against the gladiator. How is that fair sportsmanship? I ask the same of the matadores in Spain. How is that fair sportsmanship? Bullfighting is a barbaric "sport" that should have ended decades ago, and yet it continues, supposedly because it's a part of Spanish culture.

Meanwhile, foie gras is considered essential to French cuisine, or so they say in France. But again, what a barbaric practice! Imprisoning geese and force feeding them until they're sick with an enlarged liver, they endure injuries such as broken beaks, and/or they flat out die. Unfortunately, there are people who say, "Who cares? It's just a bird." Well, last I checked, geese are sentient creatures -- they feel pain, and they are not here solely for our pleasure. It is ignorant to dismiss animals' wellbeing. Ignorant, primitive and uncivilized, I should say. Geese are animals, just like our household pets. If people did to their dogs and cats what foie gras producers do to geese, guess what? They'd get arrested for animal abuse!

If we want to say we're civilized, then we need to start acting as though we were. We need to stop consuming foie gras, we need to condemn bullfighting, we need to end the circus, and we need to stop dismissing the suffering of animals as "unimportant" or worse, "laughable." After all, as Mahatma Gandhi said, "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."