Thursday, August 16, 2012

A still-foreign consciousness of non-violence


18.

Being conscious of Animal Rights doesn’t stop at dietary change but at the principle of non-violence. It is becoming a realistic possibility and inspiration. It’s possibly the most effective panacea for this war-torn age (and needless to say, it incorporates vegan principle). The only trouble is inconsistency. I’m troubled by my own inconsistency as perhaps some of my animal activist friends are. We love the idea of non-violence but applying it in practice is like a five year old child refusing candy for fear of tooth decay later in life! The Animal Rights Movement is still very young. There’s a need for all of us in it to grow up rather quickly in the face of the current ethical meltdown. Our loose grouping under the ‘Animal Rights’ banner comprises people who aren’t always entirely clear what their main message should be or how they should exemplify it. Be a strict vegan, be a hard-working activist, run an animal shelter, be a nice person? We have vegetarians who still can’t take on a vegan food and clothing regime. We have dietary vegans who can’t let go of their leathers and we have sincere animal lovers who take on (albeit as a rescue) a carnivorous companion animal which will require many other animals to die to feed it. How can an animal liberation message be promoted by activists who preach one thing and do another? I hasten to add that I don’t mean to sound harsh or extreme here, but only want to point out how tricky this subject is, how many pitfalls there are and how relatively new this Animal Rights consciousness is - to all of us.

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