Priorities

1929:

I ride a bike. And I love my bike. We have a good time together. But to be truthful, I have an abusive relationship with it. I don’t look after it. I don’t clean it. I don’t even oil it when it squeaks! But I rely on it every day to get me around. I occasionally pump up the tyres and curse it when I get a puncture. My bike serves me well but I don’t really have feelings for it. It’s just metal and rubber. It isn’t sentient and I’ll probably run it into the ground, and when it’s no longer rideable I’ll dump it and get another one. It wasn’t an expensive bike and therefore not worthy of much respect!!

The things I own, and how I look after them, reflects my attitude to them. Sure, I care about the look of them and the operation of them (if it suits me) but bikes don’t pose any moral question for me. I’m not scared of my bike, although I am scared on one level. I’m scared of abusing something because it might ‘bite back’. Neglect the brakes on my bike and it will fail to stop when I want it to.

Whether it’s a child, a car, a dog or a planet, it’s the same fear we have about them, that if we don’t do the right thing by them, somehow we’ll be made to suffer. Our attitude is either one of respect or abuse, and it applies most obviously to our respect or abuse of other humans. But what about animals? Why should there be any difference in our feelings about them? And taking it a step further, why can’t we apply similar feelings to objects? Is this going too far? Do I think this ‘attitude’ would take too much effort if applied too liberally? And is this the reason why we adopt the easiest-possible attitude? Our energy is mortgaged, and we obligated to fulfil duties and contracts. Most people - their time is not their own. So, to add a concern for farmed animals to all our other responsibilities seems unrealistic. Something has to go. We try not to feel too strongly about animals. We may not be prepared to contribute our energy that way since, after ‘work’ and home duties, there’s not so much energy left over to splash about on ‘fighting for the animals’.

So, in our society, animals generally are not given much consideration. Realising this, the Animal Industries know they can get away with almost anything, knowing they’ll not be criticised by their loyal and over-extended customers.