“Goth kittens” get pet groomer in trouble

 Posted by on 26 January 2009  Modern Life
Jan 262009
 
Goth kitten "Snarly Monster" from the eBay ad, via the Examiner.

Goth kitten "Snarly Monster" from the eBay ad, via the Examiner.

Pet groomer Holly Crawford is in trouble. Humane officers in Pennsylvania charged her with animal cruelty last week, after being tipped off by the SPCA and PETA. Her crime? Piercing the ears of kittens and trying to sell them as “goth” on eBay. A PETA spokeswoman called it “barbaric.”

Unusual? Sure. Innovative? I think so. Weird? Perhaps.

But cruel?

Crawford told The Associated Press on Thursday that she didn’t see any difference between piercing a cat and piercing a human. She said she used sterile needles and surgical soap and that she checked the kittens several times a day to make sure they were healing properly.

“When I did it, it wasn’t with any cruel intentions,” said Crawford, of rural Ross Township. “They were definitely loved, well-fed, no fleas, clipped nails. And they were happy.”

We live in a topsy-turvey world, where you can pierce the ears of a newborn infant, no problem, but get arrested for doing it to an cat. Have problems with that same cat’s behaviour, though? It’s no trouble to take it in — often to your local SPCA-associated Humane Society! — for a castration, a hysterectomy or to have its paws chopped off at the first knuckle.

Don’t you dare pierce its ear, though! If you want to alter the appearance of a cat’s ear, you’ll have to let it outside to freeze like everyone else does.

Grant Hamilton

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  • Determinator

    To be honest, I think piercing the ears or nose or any body part of a living creature that can’t say no is … well … yeah … a little cruel. A baby simply does not have the capacity to say “No thanks mommy”. That kind of thing should be done when the girl (or guy) understand enough to make that kind of choice on their own.

    It’s bad enough that people dress their canines and felines like clowns. Don’t poke holes in sensitive little ears too.

    In all honesty though, I’m not quite sure of the point you’re making here Grant. Are you saying that the laws should be changed, or people’s attitudes should be modified? Or both?

  • http://www.absurdintellectual.com/ Grant Hamilton

    I’m just having fun pointing out the absurdity of it all. You get arrested for doing it to a cat, but it’s all fine if you do it to a baby? You can’t pierce a cat’s ears, but you can chop off its paw-tips or force it to undergo major surgery?

    We have zero consistency in this.

    Personally, I wouldn’t do it. I still have guilt attacks thinking about the one time I got a cat declawed (awful, awful, awful) and I won’t get my cat spayed or neutered.

    I also agree that body modification decisions should be made by the person themselves, when they’re old enough to have the capacity to make that choice (now, let’s talk about circumcision?)

    But I’m aware of the fact that other people think differently — and I know that thousands of generations of parental-inflicted body modification is pretty heavily ingrained.

    So I guess it comes down to the fact that poor Holly here has the misfortune of doing something that’s slightly “different” — and that makes it “bad” … no matter how inconsistent those attitudes may appear.

  • http://www.absurdintellectual.com/ Amy Breen

    I think that piercing a cat’s ears, in order to sell them to a niche market, is maybe not cruel per se, but probably a bit unethical.

    I think the problem that the SPCA has is that piercing a cat’s ears has no basis in the health of the cat, whereas declawing and spaying (or other major surgery) often does.

    I realize it’s not always about the benefit of the animal though. Declawing can seem cruel when it’s done just because the owner’s don’t want their couch to get scratched, but we wouldn’t think twice about removing a cats claws if there was some sort of infection involved.

  • http://www.absurdintellectual.com/ Grant Hamilton

    For future thought: If you are against this, are you also against ear tags for livestock? What about veterinary ID tattoos? What about poodle grooming?

  • determinator

    I would point out that Kittens aren’t generally used for food like pigs or cattle. And Vet ID tattoos are not used for aesthetically pleasing purposes, or fashion.

    Poodle grooming, well that’s just downright sick. ;)