Animal Thoughts - Speaking For The Voiceless (Page 1)

1. Animal Testing...For The Fun Of It!

2. Backyard Breeding Is Wrong

3. Circuses: The CRUELLEST Show On Earth!

4. Desexing Is Definitely Sexier

5. Dog Fighting Is For Losers

6. Eating Eggs From Rescued Hens: Internal Ethics Versus Social Ramifications

7. For Humans, Killing Animals Seems To Be A Cure-All

8. Forgiving Animal Abusers

9. Horse Racing And Dog Fighting Are Essentially The Same Thing

10. "Why Don't You Eat Honey?"

Animal Testing…For The Fun Of It!

There’s a lot of ‘scientific’ research done on animals done just to be done. In other words, it’s really torture for the sake of torture.

On pages 91 and 92 of the book In Defense Of Animals, Richard D. Ryder writes about experiments in the 1990’s and 2000’s that involve severe pain for animals for completely unnecessary reasons. Have a look at the book to get the exact details, but  here’s a recap (my comments are in brackets):

• In 1997: Animals were shaken and spun in the dark to measure the effects of experimental brain damage. (Not to do anything about the brain damage, just to cause it and see what its effects are.)

• In 2001: Severe and chronic pain in animals was created by “sutures, lasers, freezing, nerve transactions, and irritants.”(Again, not to cure the chronic pain - just to create it.)

• 1996: Beagles had E. coli-infected clots surgically placed inside them to study septic shock. Within a month ten of the sixteen dogs died. (Here scientists ‘discovered’ something we already knew: that E. coli can kill.)

• 1997: Rats were given spinal injuries by dropping weights onto them. The results of this experiment were that “greater injuries were caused by dropping the weights from greater heights.” (Tell me truly: was it really necessary to injure rats to find out something that logic tells us anyway?)

• 1999: Mice were injected with tumour cells for scientists to study bone cancer pain. (People suffering from bone cancer have already told doctors that it’s an extremely painful disease, so I’d say that we don’t really need to make animals suffer to find out what’s already been confirmed.)

• During the 1990’s: the effects of high alcohol consumption and withdrawal were studied in various species of animals. (Rather than doing this, I think all you have to do is go to a pub on any night of the week and talk to the clientele about it.)

Backyard Breeding Is Wrong

This sticker (www.cafepress.com.au/+got_a_conscience_bumper_sticker,22613480) sums it all up in four sentences: "Got a conscience? Don't breed your pet. Need a reason not to? Visit a shelter and see."

Circuses: The CRUELLEST Show On Earth!

A woman who took her nephew to a circus that involved wild animals remarked to me, "But they didn't do anything abusive to the animals" and I said to her: "Of course they didn't do anything in front of an audience!"

Although the physical abuse goes on behind the scenes, there's evidence of it right in front of you in the form of the bullhook that they use with elephants and the whips they use with the big cats. These are concrete proof that circuses train wild animals through pain because if they trained with kindness they'd be standing there with a bag of treats instead of a weapon.

The so-called 'greatest' show on earth is, in fact, the cruellest show on earth if wild animals are involved and the proof is right here: www.ringlingbeatsanimals.com. You can help stop this cruelty by boycotting ANY circus that uses wild animals in their shows.

Desexing Is Definitely Sexier

Desexing is an essential part of being a responsible animal guardian. It’s best for the welfare of all animal companions by helping to reduce overpopulation, and it’s also best for your furry friend for social and medical reasons - just ask any vet or check out this link: www.rspca.org.au/how-you-can-help/campaigns/desexing.html.

Not convinced? Well, get yourself to your local shelter and take a good, hard look at all the animals on death row. Look into those cages and gaze into the unknowing eyes of the animals who might soon face a lethal injection.

Dog Fighting Is For Losers

Dog fighting is for losers. Need I say more?

Although I needn't say any more, check out this link that dog fighters hate because it uses their own words to describe the cowardly bloodsport they indulge in: www.workingpitbull.com/dogfighting.htm.

Eating Eggs From Rescued Hens: Internal Ethics Versus Social Ramifications

While cyber-chatting to my friend Faye (www.animalsandus.com.au) the question came up of whether, if I rescued some battery hens, I'd eat their eggs.

I said that, yes, I probably would have the odd egg or two. The reasons I gave were:

• These hens would live happy and free, spending their days pecking the earth, flapping their wings, and doing all the other things that chickens naturally do.
• As hens have been made into genetic freaks that lay eggs abnormally frequently, they'd lay every day anyway. It's not like I'd have to do something to the hens for them to lay - it would just happen without interference from me.
• I would certainly not kill the hens when their egg-laying days are over.

So considering all of that, it didn't seem to be an ethical dilemma to have an occasional egg. And my friend Faye agreed: ethically, there's nothing wrong with the decision of the hypothetical situation above. But, what about the bigger picture? Well, Faye had some interesting things to say about it:

"With regards to the the dilemma of 'If I eat some eggs from a rescued battery hen who lives a happy, free life with caring people, is there a problem?': if you look at it from a personal point of view, there is nothing unethical about it. If that egg was just going to stay on the ground and rot if no one ate it, then eating it could not be wrong.

"However if you look outwards at the social consequences and ramifications, this is what happens: people see you eating the egg or know that you eat eggs, they therefore say to themselves, 'Despina eats eggs, everyone eats eggs, eating eggs must be okay' and it adds to the collective belief that eating eggs is okay.

"The consequence of that is by the support of billions of egg-eating people, billions of chickens are put in tiny cages, living a miserable existence until the final gassing that ends their wretched lives.

"So the answer to the original question is both 'yes it is' AND 'no it isn't' depending on whether the question is about your own internal moral compass or whether the question is about what consequences this decision will have on those around you and the external world."

Check out these activity pages for kids about chickens on Faye's site: www.animalsandus.com.au/activitypages.html.

For Humans, Killing Animals Seems To Be A Cure-All

Very few people have been killed by sharks compared to how many sharks have been killed by humans. Check out these stats from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/
news/2005/06/0613_050613_sharkfacts.html: "While sharks kill fewer than 20 people a year, their own numbers suffer greatly at human hands. Between 20 and 100 million sharks die each year due to fishing activity..."

Despite this, when one person is killed by a shark, humans have traditionally gone on a killing spree, murdering every shark in sight to ‘save’ us from these supposedly blood-thirsty creatures. We go into their territory and think it’s strange when one of us is killed by them. But, do the maths: they are predators, and we are in their territory…that people have been killed by sharks is not the surprising thing - the fact that so few humans have been killed by sharks is the miracle.

The disgusting thing is that we kill so many sharks - millions and millions every single year. Much of it is for shark fin soup - the shark is caught, his or her fin is sliced off, and the animal is then released back into the ocean to slowly bleed to death. (And they call sharks ruthless predators!!)

Then you’ve got idiots here in Australia who camp near croc-infested water, and then complain when a crocodile comes onto land and kills someone. It’s like sitting down in the middle of a highway and then whinging that you got hit by a car.

A woman was touted as a ‘hero’ a few years ago because she shot and killed a croc that came onto the shore to where the tents where. If she’d done the same thing to a person who’d approached the tents there’d be a big investigation and she’d be on trial for murder. The message seems to be that it’s okay to kill any creature that can’t talk. In other words, murdering talking creatures (ie. humans) is not good, murdering non-talking ones is a-okay.

Although I’ve given examples of sharks and crocs, this kind of attitude goes to any creature who threatens us in any way: bears, wolves, tigers, etc. Pretty much any animal that poses any kind of threat in any way is fair game for any gun-toting redneck that happens upon them. Occasionally the law protects the animal (but only once it’s too late - once the numbers are so low that the species is endangered) but laws are just bits of paper to some people and they just do what they want. It’s not like the animal’s relatives are able to go to the police and report them.

Forgiving Animal Abusers

Michael Vick is nothing more than a dog torturer.

From http://blog.peta.org/archives/2009/08/vick_eagles.php: "[Michael Vick] hanged dogs from trees, electrocuted them with jumper cables, held them underwater until they drowned in his swimming pool, and even threw his own family dogs into the fighting pit to be torn to shreds while he laughed."

Nice guy, eh?

Well, when I was recently on a tirade about NOT allowing the convicted dog abuser Michael Vick to have his own reality show or get a courage award, someone pulled me up and told me that people can change and that we should forgive him. He gave the example of someone being an omnivore and then becoming vegetarian or vegan - if you can forgive someone who’s been part of the abuse of farm animals once they change to vegetarian or vegan, you should be able to forgive Michael Vick for what he did.

My view: people can change, yes, and while, idealogically, it's a nice sentiment to forgive, when someone has done what Michael Vick has done to animals there’s no turning back.

I have been an omnivore in the past, just as most vegetarians and vegans. In eating animals, a person indirectly contributes to the abuse/confinement/death of animals. Michael Vick PURPOSELY tortured and killed those poor dogs. He did it directly, knowingly and without the tiniest bit of remorse.

Of course, he has pretended to remorse since…but that’s what generally happens when criminals get caught: they get all teary about how they’ve seen the error of their ways and how they want another chance (boo-fricken-hoo!). Criminals rarely see the error of their ways until they get caught (hmmm…funny that…) and I’d bet both my kidneys that if Vick hadn’t been caught, he’d still be doing more of the same right now.

So, sorry Michael Vick and similar animal abusers…there IS a point of no return.

Am I being too tough? No. I absolutely NOT. You can’t just commit whatever abominable act you feel like committing and then, once caught, beg for forgiveness. Once you’ve directly had a hand at abusing any innocent (ie. babies and animals) you have relinquished your right to be forgiven. You’ve taken your human rights away from yourself through your own actions.

My friend Shelley made an interesting comment about how forgiving society is to animal abusers like Michael Vick compared to other criminals:

"We lock other criminals up in jail, and once they have supposedly 'paid their debt to society' they're released and, technically, forgiven. I mean, no one gives awards and reality shows to child molesters, do they? Some people are even KILLED by their government for doing cruel acts to fellow humans, but animal abusers get a slap on the wrist a lot of the time - and we're expected to FORGIVE THEM!?!

"Animal abusers are COWARDS who torture animals to make themselves feel powerful over another living being. It's sickening! Like child abusers and wife-beaters, animal abusers are cowards. And will NEVER have my respect or forgiveness."

I’m sure those dogs begged (in their own way) for mercy while Michael Vick was abusing them…he never paid attention. And now we’re expected to pay attention to him as he begs to be treated better. I don’t think so.

Horse Racing And Dog Fighting Are Essentially The Same Thing

My friend Daniel recently said: “Horse racing and dog fighting are the same sport with different animals. Both involve gambling on the winners who live to compete again, while the losers are killed and eaten by dogs.”

I’d never thought about it quite like that, but it’s totally spot on. When the horse’s racing days are over, the horse does NOT go to a beautiful racing horse’s paradise where he or she frolics and runs free. No chance. Instead, the horse becomes dog food. Yep: killed, skinned, chopped up and sold for canine consumption.

What about the horses that do get rescued? Well, there are a few - very few - out there, and this small number do go on to live good lives with kind people. But they often remain scarred from their experience. For example, trotters (the horses that race while pulling the cart) have their legs tied together in a way that forces them run in a completely abnormal fashion. They are also forced to trot at a speed where they would naturally gallop (like you being made to walk at a running pace - which, I’m sure you could imagine, would be both terribly difficult and incredibly painful). To get them to do this, they’re ruthlessly beaten to the point where if they are lucky enough to be rescued after they retire instead of becoming dog food, they are so traumatised they never, ever gallop again.

So the question is: why do some people rile against dog fighting, but happily to go to watch horse racing. Is it hypocrisy? Lack of knowledge of the evils of horse racing? A general lack of compassion? A combination of some or all of the above?

“Why Don’t You Eat Honey?”

Bees make honey as a matter of course. The honey industry is not like the dairy industry that impregnates mothers and, once they give birth, their babies are taken away to be murdered in order to get the mother’s milk. Bees simply make honey.

So why is it wrong to take it for our consumption? Well, to start with, it’s not bloody ours! Bees make honey for their own survival and if you take the honey away from them to consume yourself, you’re taking away their means of survival. The bees must then create more honey so that they can survive, which is again taken away from them, and they must then make more which is again taken away…and so it goes on. Bees work like maniacs to make honey, I reckon that it’s only fair to let them keep it.

I guess it would be like you coming home from the grocery store with your bags of food only to have someone take them away from you. You’d then have to go back to the grocery store to buy more food, only to have that taken away from you again, and so forth. You worked hard for the money to buy the groceries so that you can survive, why does someone else have the right to take it away from you?

Oh, and if that doesn't convince you: honey is basically bee vomit. So unless you're a fan of eating barf, that's another reason to lay off honey and go the golden syrup!

Find out more by clicking here: www.veganpeace.com/animal_cruelty/honey.htm.

NOTE: If you've read the articles on my 'Writing' page, Bee-hind The Scenes Part 1 (links: text and PDF) and Bee-hind The Scenes Part 2 (links: text and PDF), you'll notice I make mention of eating honey. At the time not only I was not vegan, I was clueless about what went into making any of the animal-derived foods I ate.