“10/31/2010, 4:00pm EST”
I steal something of yours. You accidentally retaliate in the smallest of ways. I torture and kill you in response.
Does that sound right to you on any level?
As the above video depicts, a village in India surrounded, tortured, and killed a terrified baby elephant. See, these village people don’t like elephants, because elephants trample their crops — you know, the crops those people planted in the same place where they destroyed the elephants’ home.
Events like these, in which humans assume the right to treat other animals however we please without respect to the interests of those animals, happen everyday around the world. It’s happening right now to more than 50 billion animals globally on factory farms. To millions of animals in horror-film testing labs. To millions of wild animals being netted, sport-hunted, or poached. To thousands of animals forced into circuses, rodeos, fights, and races they don’t understand and would never elect to engage in, if left alone.
There may be no greater irony than the fact that we humans use “animal” as a slur against the members of our own species whom we deem too violent or barbaric. Fact is, animals (of the non-human variety) haven’t got anything on us when it comes to committing senseless acts of brutality. They’re the victims of a pack of thieves called homo sapiens which steals homes, bodies, and lives, and which destroys families, livelihoods, and psyches, as a matter of perceived right.
It’s morally irrelevant that the victims of these crimes are not human. A baby elephant feels as much pain as you do when it is stabbed by a spear. It fears aggression as much as you do. It feels as safe with its family as you do. It strives to live a happy and healthy life as much as you do.
You can end your participation in all of this. Go vegan.
Never leave home without it.
