วันจันทร์ที่ 20 กุมภาพันธ์ พ.ศ. 2555

Realistic Animal Activism

Since I first learned as a young child that animals were harmed and killed (and not just for primary food) I believed strongly in animal activism and voiced my opinions. In junior high school the only meat I ate was poultry and I refused to buy shoes or clothes with leather as my personal statement. Pretty much every single choose-your-topic school report, term paper or investigate task from junior high straight through college was animal linked (mostly elephants); my first historical outline task in 6th grade was on Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring. Today I'm not much different: I eat fish and sometimes poultry (especially when it's going to give my mom an aneurism if I snub her Thanksgiving turkey), but I limit my intake to rare opening and sustainable species as much as possible, I buy cruelty-free personal products and am enduringly learning, researching and changing my habits to be sustainable, animal-friendly and conscience clean whenever I have a choice.

There's a big, fat line I draw when it comes to animal activism: veganism and Peta. These two concepts do not jive with animal proprietary in the best way potential and can be very misleading and hypocritical, giving a bad name to the movement as a whole. I respect those who are vegan and those who fight for animal rights, but I will respect them a whole lot less if they try to force their opinions and lifestyle on me. As a result, I try to be aware of how my choices affect others: should person ask about my diet I'll freely justify why I select to eat or not eat determined foods, but I'm not the type of person to criticize someone's club sandwich. Further, when someone's going to throw away their half-eaten plate of carne asada nachos and I'm hungry I'll take it off their hands (did that once and it reaffirmed I just don't like beef).

Pet Pillow

Veganism: I get veganism. Supposedly it's got a lot of benefits and super delicious food can be vegan (I accidentally make vegan dishes frequently), but I could never adopt the lifestyle, partially because I don't want to be that hipster or pretentious and mostly because I just love cheese. There's an greatest form of veganism that extends to people's pets, which is downright wrong. Citizen are omnivores, which means we eat both vegetation and animals, and can make the decision to eat more or less of one or the other. Cats and dogs, on the other hand, are strictly carnivores, which means the only vegetation they eat is whatever's in the stomachs of the animals they eat. Putting a cat or dog on an unnatural diet because it's "cruel" is just as cruel, and Citizen who do that might have their hearts in the right places but don't understand the right way to make their point.

Peta: Peta, on the same hand, so strongly advocates letting animals live their peaceful natural lives that they completely go about it in a ridiculous way. For example, Peta has purchased animals from pounds and euthanized them because they believe death is a more humane fate than suffering as pets (trapped in the cruel, cruel world of belly rubs and back yards). Peta believes my cat would be great off dead than living with clean water and her own pillow. Insane. an additional one preponderant Peta belief is that fur is wrong (you've positively seen their celebrity-studded "I'd rather go naked" campaigns), and although I agree that raising and killing animals for their skin and fur is wrong I would never throw red paint all over someone's fur coat. You know why, other than that's not how adults behave? Because those Citizen are just going to go back into the store, purchase an additional one fur coat (creating a higher demand), and likely sue Peta, forcing them to spend money on lawsuits, rather than on animals.

It seems hard to find that excellent middle ground, the one in the middle of our understanding that animals feel pain and our omnivorous institute and the one in the middle of retention our captive animals happy and wholesome and being humane to our food and wild animals. The truth is it's not positively that hard, but it is expensive. We can buy responsibly raised cows, pigs, chickens and stop buying factory farm raised animals, but most Citizen take a break from their animal activism at the supermarket. It's a option to make, but Citizen have to positively make the realistic option to plainly eat less meat (and get away from the belief that it's not a real meal if it doesn't have meat) if the cost of responsible meat is too expensive. Peta should also put their money where their mouth is and dedicate their organization to responsible meat eating, which I'm sure will net much more supporters than paint on fur.

Realistic Animal Activism

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