The hypocrisy of our society when it comes to the treatment of animals is dumbfounding. Your neighbour keeps their pet dog or cat locked in a room and that’s cruel, but your local restaurant boils a lobster or crab to death after it’s been kept in a tiny tank and that’s fine. Switch on your television and you’ll be confronted with numerous adverts against wildlife cruelty; save the leopard, protect the rhino, give money for a donkey sanctuary, and yet viewers who act all outraged at the sight of ivory hunters don’t want to admit that unless they’re vegan they’re partly responsible for the mistreatment and torture of many animals, albeit “common” ones. Only once an animal reaches an arbitrary “low” number, do the masses start to give a toss about its life. Save The Pandas! Sponsor A Tiger! But torture chickens in a battery cage or a broiler shed and that’s fine because there’s millions of them.
Every now and again we see a news story like the Bernard Matthews workers abusing turkeys, but those stories eventually die down and people soon stop caring. Especially during this time of the year, the masses seem to be complicit in the mistreatment of animals, nobody really cares how the birds are reared before they become part of their “five bird roast”, but in the same breath these hypocrites want to save the frigging condor. But what’s the difference, is all life not sacred? I guess we should only care about animals when they’re nearing extinction, but who gives a flying fuck about a turkey when it’s Christmas? I guess the only thing that would stop us from consuming a certain animal is if some arsehole charity told us “there’s less than a thousand of these animals left”.
The West also loves to harp on about how we care for animals as though the rest of the world are some kind of animal haters. We lionize holier-than-thou twats like Dian Fossey just because they fannied around singling out a specific species, I guess a gorilla is somehow cherished so don’t you dare eat any bushmeat, but feel free to devour as much farmed meat as your gut desires. And speaking of farmed meat, remember all that furore about the “horse-meat scandal”? I mean what really is the difference between a horse and let’s say a deer? Calling it venison doesn’t change the fact that they both have hooves, I guess it’s fine to gobble down on Bambi but god forbid you chomp on Mr. Ed.
If you watch shows like Bill Bailey’s Qualmpeddler in which Bailey shows footage of him “rescuing” an owl from a restaurant in China, there’s a shot of the audience watching the film in awe and wonderment, clapping at the releasing (then possibly tucking into some KFC chicken on their way out). It’s this kind of blind contradiction that had morons in the nineties yelling “let’s boycott tuna products because they kill dolphins” (which to me just sounded like “fuck the tuna!”) these same tits then proceeded to eat other species of fish because this “saved” the dolphin, according to their skewed logic somehow a mammal with a blow-hole was more sacred than a fish with gills.
This hypocrisy also extends outside of food consumption and into the realms of leisure and entertainment. We watch jockeys kicking or whipping horses so they can win a race and everybody seems to be okay with it. We also trap “endangered” or “exotic” animals in enclosures or cages so we can ogle at them in a zoo, some people even say idiotic shite like “they look like they’re having a good time” or “it looks like their natural habitat” even though any fool can plainly see these animals are not having a good time, and in fact keeping any animal in captivity exotic or otherwise, is cruel. There are of course people who agree with me, you’ll hear many people saying that zoos are cruel, and yet many of these same people couldn’t care less when a chicken is kept without sunlight, pumped full of vaccines, fed crap, and given no room to move. Does nobody care if they’re having a “good time” or if they’re in their “natural habitat”?
This kind of selective standpoint varies greatly among species. We eat a pig but we frown upon “foreigners” when they eat cats and dogs. In fact how many TV Shows or Films have you seen where the joke concerns Asians eating cats? Just because we’ve decided to domesticate them, it doesn’t make our consumption of meat such as duck or lamb any more ethical or moral. And nobody bats an eyelid at drinking the milk of an animal intended for its offspring; is drinking cow’s milk not conceptually more disgusting than eating cat meat? I mean, when some pompous Michelin Starred Chef tells us it’s okay to eat snake or ostrich, everybody’s okay with it, but dogs and cats are somehow outlawed from our menus on the grounds that they’re cute or worthy of our affection. I’m not saying we shouldn’t eat meat, but why do we pick and chose which species we deem worthy of love or protection? And just because we have a craving for cheap or tasty meat, why does the said animal have to live in squalor and in misery for the short life it has? Why does a chicken have to live without sunlight, without fresh-air, without care just so we can have a 99p meal or snack? This cruelty by proxy seems to be overlooked by everybody when they’re hungry.
We act as if the characteristics of a human is somehow better than that of an animal. In fact we use words like “animal” and “beast” to denote a savage way of acting. But take a look around; who’s doing all the torturing, the killing, the raping, who kills for fun, who starts wars, who really preys on the weak? Humans bear more of so-called “inhuman” characteristics than any animal on Earth.
Human?
Categories: Artwork, Food And Drink, Life
WHAT WENT WRONG WITH...? 
Great article ! i really appreciate your opinion on this ❤ Love, Anna xx
I think, if anything, animals are pure, innocent and blameless as opposed to humans. Those animals that are natural predators kill for survival, unlike humans, who kill both animals and their own kind for a multitude of reasons that got fuck all to do with survival. Animals are killed for sport (hunting), for their leather and fur, for their ivory bone or just because – because sick twisted fucks otherwise known as humans derive pleasure from torturing and killing.
Also, I think humans are the only intraspecies predators. We kill our own kind, every day. Most of that is not done in self defence, by accident or for survival purposes but rather maliciously and deliberately, for personal gain, or over some idiotic beliefs, or in wars, or, again, just because – killing for the sake of killing (think serial killers).
And yeah, the hypocrisy of some is astounding – you have holier-than-thou vegans who think nothing of sporting leather accessories or having leather upholstered furniture or seats in their cars. I tried avoiding all animal products at some point in my life and found it virtually impossible – if something doesn’t include any animal parts then it was tested on animals. I still do try to avoid things that are absolutely unnecessary- like fur and leather clothing, leather upholstery etc. I realise that some animal products may be hard to give up, especially if we are used to consuming them from the early childhood – like drinking milk or eating eggs and/or meat…but ffs one’s bag or belt or couch really don’t need to be made of leather when fabric works just as fine.
I agree. I forgot to mention animal testing, whether it’s for medical or cosmetic applications, why should an animal have to suffer for the benefit of humans? If humans want to use something, test it on willing humans.
Just to clarify, I’m not trying to preach to people to stop eating meat, animals eat meat and so do humans, there’s nothing wrong with that, but the unnecessary suffering of animals bred for food really needs to end. I mean why can’t animals live freely or naturally prior to being killed? Why do they have to be packed into the smallest space for the biggest profit? If you see a truck transporting animals for slaughter it’s like seeing Nazi trains taking people to Auschwitz or Dachau. This kind of torturous farming only benefits big companies; it creates a miserable existence for the animals and it produces non-nutritious meat.
People need to boycott companies and establishments that sell broiler chickens etc., if the cost of something like KFC goes up, so be it, a life is worth more than 99p (or $1.99).
No hypocrisy here – I’ll eat any animal if it tastes good. “Animals have rights”…..that’s got to be one of the funniest….. 🙂
I’m not sure what you’re saying, or what your point is. If you’re talking about me, I never said “I’ll eat any animal if it tastes good” vs. “Animals have rights”, maybe re-read the article.
If you’re talking about yourself; you can eat what you like, but how did you know which animal “tasted good” before you ate it? Maybe it’s time to try human flesh next.
On your second “point” why should you be allowed, let’s say, to torture an animal for fun? Why shouldn’t an animal have rights? People had the same argument about slaves, natives, and now animals. A life is a life.
Surely vegans are responsible for animal deaths too. What happens to the wildlife when fields are cleared to grow agricultural products?
Sure, everybody is responsible for some type of animal death and I’m not saying that vegans are morally superior to carnivores. But animal cruelty and double-standards about animal cruelty is what the article is about, and it is meat eaters (or more accurately omnivores) that are predominantly responsible for, or complacent about such things; eat a chicken, save a hawk, protect a donkey, eat some venison – it’s these kind of incessant contradictions that are more offensive to me.
And by the way, what would you have vegans do? Starve?
Animal farming takes up more resources and land than agriculture.
Peta is now making “video games” showing the franchises as animal abuse. I mean how is a racoon suit in SMB3 animal abuse. And pokémon is about making animals slaves? WTF? They’re just differnt colured pixels on a screen, goddamnit…Amyway, great article bro..
Great article. Thank you!
What’s with the word “humane”? the only correct context that word has any meaning in my opinion has nothing to do with anything good. Hypocriticlly humane euthanasia is practised on every species except humans, which is illegal in most western countries as it’s supposedly against humanity rights to humanely euthanise a person who is suffering intolerably and so must die slowly and agonisingly whilst an animal simply gets to be “put out of its misery”. What’s worse and is a fact that to qualify as an RSPCA inspector, a candidate must successfully euthanise a healthy albeit discarded dog abandoned in the kennels…. but to euthanise a suffering person who has to fight the high Court for their right to die that’s murder