The new ethical vegan cannot understand how blind that they were & how painfully obvious it becomes.
The rodeo crowds cannot believe how the events that injure & kill animals is considered animal cruelty.
The speciesist is outraged at Asian countries for farming, killing & consuming dogs and cats while they defend their custom and eat a pork roast.
Fur and skin wearers get upset when they find out that dog & cats skin/fur is used as trim on hats, gloves, hoodies, slippers, etc.
The vegetarian cannot quite grasp that dairy & egg production is cruel industrial farming.

Our fraught relationship with animals.

And we fill our babies/children’s rooms with stuffed animals that they love, sleep with, name, and mourn (when lost or damaged). Children’s books chock full of animals and animal characters which teach our children valuable life lessons & morals.
We were taught by animals too. Aesop…the little white cat…the cat in the hat…the 3 bears…3 billy goats…charlottes web…Ferdinand the bull…everybody poops…etc (mostly etc)

Children of rodeo parents love their ponies & their 4-h calves. They brush them, kiss them, hug them, regard them, name them, take photos of them…they love them.
And, then children grow up.

We make jokes about eating animals. We ignore or are oblivious to their suffering. We mock and attack those that fight for the rights of animals.
Where did that regard for the life of an animals go?
Did marketing and society beat the empathy out of us?
Did we just ascribe to a societally accepted pathology?
A meat eating tradition.

While I am an abolitionists…I advocate for all animals, I am, admittedly, nepotistic when it comes to ‘farmed’ animals.
They are enslaved, imprisoned, raped, abused, eaten, mocked, exploited, worn, sold, isolated, beaten, murdered, forgotten, unseen, voiceless.
Their skin is turned into shoes, jackets, jewelry, luggage, bags, journals, sofas, hats, auto interior, gloves, equine tack (horses strapped with cow skin).
Their secretions are stolen from their babies, and their babies (born from rape) are stolen from them.
Their calves milk is churned into butter, pasteurized into milk, cream, yogurt, cheeses…

Children have a frog, a tiger, & a bee selling them cereals.
Adults have jaguars, mustangs, & rams selling them automobiles.
BBQ’s usually have a happy, smiling pig donning a chef hat and apron.

Everywhere we look- animals are marketing us their skin/flesh/fur/secretions/power/byproducts/wisdom/allure.

What the fuck is wrong with us?

We are obsessed. We cage-keep-confine. Kill-eat-wear.
…consume them with our mouths, our eyes, our egos.
We are aware of their intelligence, their familial bonds, (some) of their altruism.

Ever seen a rampaging rhino save an antelope from a crocodile attack?
Google it.
Or, a dolphin that after boaters threw a fish to them, the dolphin returned with oysters (to feed the humans= reciprocity).
Google it.
Or, a hippo assist a young struggling zebra to cross a water way?
Google it.
Ever seen zebra fish reciprocal relations? They do favors for one another, and always repay the favor.
Google it.
Ever seen a chicken raise a duck and the duckling teach the hen how to feed them?
Google it.
Ever seen a cat nurse a baby squirrel?
Google it.

Use your brains… #DigOutYourSoul

See life.
Don’t end lives.