While watching season 9, episode 8 of The X-Files, titled Hellbound, I hear a retired forensic pathologist who is asked about a particularly heinous murder that occurred decades ago (someone who had been skinned alive), and commented that he did remember that case because it was "inhuman". That comment made something click. All of a sudden, I realized: Inhuman, you say? Quite the contrary, if anything, it's intrinsically human. Sure, it's not something that happens on a regular basis. But it does happen. There are particularly heinous (and mentally sick) murderers who do it. However, in the rest of the animal world? What other animal does that? They do kill to eat, certainly. Sometimes, they even kill their own offspring. But skinning another animal alive just for the pleasure of it? What other animal does that? If anything, this was one of those clear cases of speciesism that the defenders of animal rights criticize so much. I'm not necessarily a radical defender of animal rights. But, in this case, I would agree with their criticism. When facing a horribly cruel behavior, we often like to label it as "animal behavior". Well, sometimes I'm afraid it's actualy a very human behavior. {link to this entry}

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