We profess that we are the only ones capable of contemplating life and death, and that we alone possess morals, ethics and a conscience.
Yet every day we support the killing, torture and exploitation
of other animals, or sometimes we do it ourselves, just for fun. We justify
these actions by saying other animals kill as well. This of course is true. For
some animals to live, others must die. It’s all part
of nature, red in tooth and claw, and aren’t we also a part of nature?
Yes we are. But just because
something is natural doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good or desirable. There are
many animals that rape (spiders, ducks, water beetles), enslave (ants, wasps, dolphins)
and kill and eat (chimpanzees, bears, lions) members of their own species. Is
this something we want to mimic as well? *
We’re a different
kind of animal. We don’t live in jungles anymore and we don’t live by the law of the jungle. We live by a
set of rules, laws and codes of right behaviour for the benefit of all. It’s no
longer a matter of kill or be killed, or survival of the fittest. We take care
of our elderly, our young and our sick. We help those less fortunate and those
in trouble. In a word, we’re civilized.
But despite the fact (or claim) that we’re different, better
and so much more evolved than the “lower” animals, in many horrible ways we act
just like them. Why aren’t we behaving better? Why aren’t we acting more evolved? We don’t condone
the slaughter, enslavement and exploitation of other human animals, so why do we think it’s okay to kill, torture and
enslave non-human animals?
Other animals can’t pick and choose what they eat. Flesh
eaters need flesh. We don’t. We can survive and stay healthy eating all the other foods
this wonderful planet has to offer. But we choose to eat other animals because
they taste good and because we’ve always done it. These are pretty lame reasons
for ending someone else’s life, and we end more than 50 billion animals’ lives every year because of our preferences.
We can’t have it both ways. Either we’re just like the
animals or we’re not. Isn’t it about time we put our money where our mouths
are? Isn’t it time we started
acting better? If you really think you are different, better and more highly evolved than the other animals, prove it - go vegan.
* On the flipside, there are a
number of animals that have been observed helping others, including
those of different species, even putting their own lives at risk to do so. If
we want to imitate other animals, let’s imitate these ones!
