[friscomom]

Originally Posted by Woogie Man

No need to clarify, Ann, but you've seen the tone of some of these posts. The OP used the word 'atrocity', which is a word reserved for mass killings, genocide, etc., not something so (relatively) benign as tail docking. Geez, with words like that being tossed about, we'll have no words left to describe the real horrors. Can you imagine a kid reading about the SS, Pol Pot or Idi Amin and asking, "what's an atrocity?" and someone answers, "it's like when they dock a dog's tail". That's sure to give the kid a warped perspective and I believe that's what extremist types attempt to do in using such words.

Extreme words like atrocity are generally (mis-)used in effort to express and convey a huge amount of violent emotion safely. Where there is moderate emotion there will be moderate words which folks can respond to more readily and deal with the actual issues without hysteria. That's why there are moderators.