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05/10/2003 Archived Entry: "Mobs attacking pets in China"

IN CHINA, MOBS ARE SLAUGHTERING PETS in the fear that the critters are spreading SARS. The scenes of cruelty are horrible, and ugly with self-satisfaction. The human race hasn't improved much since the fourteenth century, when panicked people killed cats, convinced the creatures were carrying the black plague. Or the seventeenth century, when dogs and cats were slaughtered by official order in a destructive attempt to halt a recurrance of the disease. (In fact, rat-killing felines were one of the few things that could have protected these ignorant people against plague.)

Back in the fourteenth century, good Christian folk also blamed the Jews for the disease, among the many other things they blamed the Jews for. The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Posted by Claire @ 09:57 AM CST
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