Monday, October 20, 2008

Animal Rights Are For Everyone

I have a porch on the back of my house where I keep tools and all sorts of small lawn equipment. In order to go out the back door, I have to go through the porch to get to the backyard. Yesterday, when I took my two dogs outside, a bluejay flew in the open porch door and got trapped. He had been out looking for breakfast, because he had a berry in his mouth, which he quickly dropped once he found out he was trapped. Instead of finding the open door, he kept banging into the two porch windows, trying to get out. As I stood there, watching him frantically trying to free himself, I tried to show him the open door, but he was too petrified and ran from me. After a while, he hid in some of the things I have on the porch, and I couldn't find him. I prayed that if I left the door open, he would eventually find his way out to freedom, and luckily, he did, but I felt so sorry for him, and it reminded me of all the animals who find themselves in that position. As much as "man" may pretend that he's the only
species on earth that values life, "man" needs to take a look around and see the suffering animals endure because of this attitude. Animals are seen by man as disposable, and are considered "property" by the government. Thousands and thousands of animals are abused on a daily basis, but, sadly, most of us are "shielded" from that information. When we go to the supermarket to buy meat, it's neatly wrapped up in plastic and styrofoam and doesn't even resemble an animal anymore. If we all had to kill our dinners, most of us would become vegetarians overnight. The dirty work is done for us, so we continue to ignore the horrible suffering "food" animals endure just so we can enjoy their flesh. I've been a vegan for about 17 years, and became one primarily because of the way the animals are treated. The abuse is heartbreaking and horrendous. It doesn't stop with farm animals either. Millions of dogs and cats are euthanized each year because there aren't enough homes to go around. Abraham Lincoln
once said, "I'm in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of the whole human being". Countries are judged by the way they treat their animals, and, sadly, the United States will go down in history as being one of the most abusive countries toward animals in the world. If you support animal rights, you can find some nice animal rights t-shirts and gifts at Veggie Shirts, a subsidiary of Union Eight.













1 comment:

Morgan said...

Although I have never actually had an experience like you mentioned at the beginning of the blog, I still understand what you are saying. Animal rights are for everyone. Meat companies defiantly try to hide the facts from the public. It doesn’t say on the packages (at least that I have notices) that the animals that this meat was made from was abused and killed for the public’s enjoyment. The way that all of it is so neatly wrapped and displayed kind of makes it all seem ok. Like killing animals to eat is ok. Like the animals don’t feel pain in any way. It is unfair. I respect you for being vegan for 17 years. That is wonderful.