Statistics and Stories - Part Two

1894:

Edited by CJ Tointon

We’re now out of the sea and up on dry land. Here, there are two sorts. Those who are born and live their entire lives in the wild in relative freedom, and others, the 'domesticated' ones, the 'farmed' ones (including some fish) who are enslaved. Unlike the fish of the sea, these animals have never known a natural environment. Indeed, they have never known LIFE - only a bare existence. These unfortunate souls are bred and kept in the captive state - solely to be killed. There's no quality of life for them. Their existence comprises captivity and incapacity followed by brutal execution. If we could actually see any of this happening,  we'd surely be in tears. Which is why these animals are kept out of public sight.

How can our consciousness allow even one animal, fish or bird to go through this horror at our behest? Without an imagination driven by empathy, it's impossible to grasp the true horror of what is really going on with all this killing and all that leads up to it. This impossibility to comprehend, creates the disinclination to change, especially amongst those with a 'food charged', speciesist attitude toward non-humans.

Here's the maths: eight animals for every human on the planet will be put to death this year!  The figures are so staggering that we can barely distinguish between 56 thousand animals, 56 million animals and the 56 billion land animals that humans keep behind bars for exploiting and killing every year. We are conditioned in a certain way to do the mental gymnastics which makes statistics meaningless. Vegans believe the killing should stop! But to the conditioned carnivore who is eating animals every day, such an idea is so unrealistic as to make it dismissible - "Are you saying that NO animals should be held captive, or killed or eaten?"  Yes - vegans are saying just that - and more!

In the attempt to unravel the perniciousness of our conditioning, we almost need to outsmart it, to help our adversaries. For example: we can try to help the perpetrators switch to profitable businesses away from the abattoir businesses. The executive killers, the product retailers, the mind conditioners, they all need help to employ their entrepreneurial skills in other fields of business to give humans and the whole ecosystem time to heal. But getting this simplest of messages across is like standing silent at the ramparts of the strongest castle.

If we are to have any chance at all as animal advocates, we must first be VEGAN. It's an absurdity otherwise. You can't eat them AND fight for their rights. Going vegan might feel like a calculated risk at first; until we realise that animal-based foods can be dropped safely. Many vegan doctors and nutritionists are researching the safety and health aspects of a plant-based diet and this is a point of great importance. But we shouldn't get waylaid by it. It isn't the main point of concern. We should boycott meat for the sake of the prisoners.