In the meantime all we can do is present our case and wait.

684: 

It’s as important to be patient as it is to have a credible argument at our fingertips. When they are required by our freedom-loving, self-willed omnivore friends we must know that we have many good arguments to choose from. And for us to know the facts which can back them up.

We might expose the ugly horrors, appeal to people’s sense of compassion, explain in detail why animal by-products involve cruelty and how they damage the health of the human body. We can suggest attractive non-animal foods, recommend what sort of clothing and footwear to buy. We can emphasize the greenhouse implications of animal farming and tell our friends how inexpensive plant-based foods are and how they don’t rot so quickly or smell so badly when being cooked.

Ah, but that’s not quite true, for it comes down to perception. For me the smell of frying bacon is disgusting and I want to block it out, whereas for others, who eat bacon, it is the most seductive smell. And so these arguments, the warmth of wool, the look of leather, the smoke of the barbeque, they are very subjective. And ethics are too; I regard the animal as a sovereign, irreplaceable, individual, sentient, innocent creature, and you might think of them as dumb beasts without individual personalities, put on this earth for humans to use as they will, believing they don’t have brains like ours, don’t feel as we do, don’t have our sensitivity and can’t foresee their own destiny at the abattoir. How do I get over the subjective barriers?

Perhaps the strongest position I take, when advocating that animals deserve to be granted rights, is that our attachment to animal products is a weakness, and like any weakness we can find any amount of justification for it but this one will always clash with our instinct for non-violence. Because there is so much violence in our society it would seem obvious that this ‘little weakness’ is connected in some way with the way we treat those species we are closest to and which are most useful to us. Instead of protecting them, as we would children or the disabled, we exploit them. Knowing that they can’t fight back, should alert us to the need to be their guardians and not their jailers. The shame of that might be overwhelming but, in reality, not as overwhelming as our attraction to the yummy foods we will enjoy if only we can forget the social injustice of animal exploitation.