Of course you can have opinions on animal abuse, and anything else you want. This is the funny thing about the deification of cats and dogs and how emotional people get they can't even grasp the very basic that I'm not defending the person -- never have. There's nothing to debate here. I haven't gone through the thread post by post because the issue itself is so mundane, but I suspect nobody is advocating for the use of shock collars. This story isn't about the use of shock collars, it's about the politics of the person using the shock collar and can/should that be used to invalidate all their political stances that are unrelated issues.
I've just said it's not a very big deal, it's a stupid "controversy" and I feel it's a bizarrely unimportant issue when the unrelated issues we typically talk about war, genocide, etc. I don't even know if using a shock collar is illegal where he is, but this is pretty darn far down the list of concerns as I think it would be for most rational people. The person can pay the fine or whatever. But this is the war room, this forum has a ubiquitous pop up about not wishing genocide upon people, and I bet some would get more upset over the shock collar of a dog than the murder of people they don't align with politically.
Anyhow, I digress, and hope you never visit a factory farm and see how animals are treated there - your head mite explode. Unless you are some sort of strict vegetarian/vegan or ultra picky shopper you have extremely likely paid out of pocket for animals that are treated much worse to be killed and don't even think twice about it -- I know I have - even teh super immoral fois gras and the whole gambit. I've been to markets and seen dogs strung up and sliced open. Just like rabbits, cows, camels etc.
We are a selfish species for evolutionary and societal reasons, and heaven forbid a dog stay in the same place for too long or someone doesn't turn off the light bulb in the goldfish tank.