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1082: 

Ed: CJ

Humans have the potential to be kind.  Most of us would be incapable of deliberately making an animal suffer.  But we’re duplicitous enough to let others do our dirty work for us.  We let others imprison the animals, mutilate them and kill them.

When things happen 'out of sight, out of mind', it’s as if 'what our eyes don’t see, our hearts won’t grieve over'.  The shops that sell dead animals to us, make sure the final product no longer looks like body parts.  Or are we so used to seeing slabs of flesh on the shelf that we don’t associate 'meat' with a once living animal?

We are brought up to see no need for making ethical decisions when shopping for food or clothing.  We see the product we want, reach for it (as we’ve done a thousand times before), pay for it, take ownership of it and consume it or use it.  And we mindlessly repeat the same shopping process again and again.  Our minds are put at rest when there’s a never-ending supply of the products we want to buy.

If we buy a battery egg or a leg from a lamb, we buy it because we want it.  We aren’t usually that concerned about the way it was produced, or about the animal from which the "part" was taken.

No one is in favour of cruelty to animals, but no one wants products to be expensive.  So when Animal Welfare reforms are made and prices go up, consumers are faced with a problem.  They must decide between 'economics' and 'ethics'.

It’s essential to remember that (at this point in time) however much the welfare of animals is improved, they will still be 'enslaved' and/or 'slaughtered' - by humans - for the exclusive use of humans.

Unless we are willing to accept this speciesist scenario, we should never be at peace with current Animal Welfare "reforms".

Ed: CJ