Muddle-headed or evil?

924: 

Is what food producers do to animals evil? Is the conniving-consumers also evil? Perhaps, in reality, it’s more mindlessness than deliberate evil-doing. When something has been done for millennia, when everybody is doing much the same thing, everywhere on the planet (using or eating animals), it’s not likely to be thought of as wrong.

Of course to a person who does NOT eat animals, to a vegan for instance, it looks very wrong indeed.

It’s all in the perception. To those in the industry, the farmers, abattoir workers, cage manufacturers, retailers, etc., it’s a living – this is how they make their money, by using animals. The use of animals, as we would use any resource, is seen as utterly normal. And to consumers too, who are simply in the shop buying their normal food, it’s such an everyday occurrence that it isn’t even thought about. Any ill effects this food might have on them, let alone the harm done to the animals, is hardly thought about.

You can imagine how it seems when a vegan comes along and starts pointing out the stupidity let alone the wrongness of it all. To the regular omnivore that could seem quite mystifying - these are “normal foods” to everyone. They are the only type of foods they’ve ever known; a meal without animal-derived items is no meal at all.

It’s the same with pharmaceuticals or medical procedures, we trust they are safe, that they’ve been animal-tested before reaching the market with nary a thought to the pain and suffering animals endure during animal experiments. Most people are not aware or don’t want to be made aware that laboratories exist where thousands of animals are held against their will, immobilised and eventually die terrible deaths, to test chemicals for human safety. “Better to test on animals than humans”, we say.

As it is with farmers producing food for consumers, so it is with animal researchers and vivisectors, who believe they’re helping to fight illness and disease. When they’re searching for a new drug to help combat some horrible disease, surely, they say, “Anything goes”. Conducting ‘safety experiments’ on animals isn’t thought to be an act of evil, it’s quite the opposite in fact.

We humans have grown accustomed to making use of what’s available, and in this case we see animals merely as useful ‘resources’. We take from them without questioning whether we have the right to do so or not. It’s not much different to the motorist using petrol, in that it’s available so why not use it? Animals are simply available-for-use.

Gradually the human race is waking up to the consequences of this attitude. Gradually we are realising that taking what is not ours, especially if it’s to the detriment of something or someone else, might be a mistake. Not so much evil as muddle-headed. I doubt if Animal Rights is fighting evil as much as thick headedness, ego and a blind compliance with the norm.