With this I will take a moment to mention something more pressing than the abuse of animals like a few other posts have been about. It’s the abuse of people.
I watch commercials on TV all the time of how I should donate to PETA or the ASPCA or what have you, and every time, I think about how many more abused people there are in the world than animals. Whenever we see commercials about sponsoring World Vision
World Vision[i]
or other service organizations devoted to ending world hunger or war, we just blow them off and treat them as though they are excessive, or that we can’t do anything to help. But the minute a cute little puppy dog in a clean, sterile vet’s office
Puppy[ii]
comes up, we immediately assume that this animal was abused and needs our help (which we can easily give), because he is so much more accessible than those people in Africa.
Jude’s sympathy for animals is quite sincere, even to the point of losing his job, “He sounded the clacker till his arm ached, and at length his heard grew sympathetic with the birds’ thwarted desires”[iii]. Jude’s concern is touching, and he later shows sympathy for Sue to the utmost extreme, but this isn’t even helpful to anyone, much less him. He’s just walked on all the time and highly under appreciated.
Vegans have all sorts of reasons for not eating meat. For one thing, it saves money most of the time. I hardly ever eat meat, and it isn’t by choice: it’s a result of expense. But some vegans just do it for the social benefits.
Vegan...sorta[iv]
What if those vegans gave their “extra” money to people in our country’s ghettos? That’s a bit extreme, I’d say, but honestly. We should promote help for humans more than animals on TV.
Hopkins writes in "Inversnaid","What would the world be, once bereft / Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left, / O let them be left, wildness and wet; / Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.""Inversnaid" (1881). We can save the plants and animals and "wildness" all we want, but this doesn't do anything for the people that live off of this "wildness". If we save it of our own volition and no other reason, we have no regard for the humans that are already suffering from its disappearance right now. This should be something that is actively going on right now as we speak, not something we pine for without action.Compassion is defined in our reading as, “Suffering together with another, participation in suffering; fellow-feeling, sympathy”[v], but do we really want to suffer with someone else? When we think of compassion for those less fortunate, we usually just want to send them money and be done with it. But what if we went there and actually did something about it? What if we lived as they did instead of staying at home in our comfy armchairs sipping mixed drinks?
Likewise, sympathy is defined in our reading as, “A relation between two bodily organs or parts (or between two persons) such that disorder, or any condition, of the one induces a corresponding condition in the other….”[vi] I don’t think we’d like AIDS to infect all of our relatives or kill our parents as it does to many of the children living in Zambia. But for many people, this is a reality.
But why should we care if other people are suffering? They’re so far away, right?
And puppies are just cuter.
5 comments:
Very interesting musings, thanks for sharing your thoughts :)
dont mean to be rude but where do you get off telling people that the way they are helping the world is bad i didnt know there was only one way to be kind
if someone wants to help an animal dont complain if you would prefer to help people then go ahead and i hope you are other wise your little speech was bull im sick of people saying humans need more help than the animals or those assholes who say why should we help people in other countries we have poor people in america what the hell most of these people that say this arent helping anyone
i say as long as your helping poor defensless creatures what does it matter
at least there doing something instead of sitting on their couch saying thats so sad when they see the comercials but they never do anything
WHY IN THE HELL ARE YOU COMPLAINING ABOUT PEOPLE TRYING TO HELP IS THERE NOT ENOUGH BAD IN THE WORLD FOR YOU TO COMPLAIN ABOUT YOU HAVE TO RNT AND RAVE ABOUT PEOPLE DOING GOOD BUT NOT DOING THE GOOD YOU WANT THEM TO DO
There are several points I find questionable in this post.
Firstly, the statement that human suffering is more pressing than other animal suffering is very speciesist. If something is suffering, regardless of species, it's important to try to minimise that. akasha is correct - why should there be a limit on compassion? Often others suffer (human and non human) at the hands of humanity, and we must carry the weight of that responsibility.
The statement that there are more abused people than animals: what makes you believe this? If you consider the billions of billions of animals worldwide suffering for the food industry, science, sport,fashion, neglect and pollution, I think you would have to accept that the numbers suffering are at least equal, and I believe, many more.
The statement "Whenever we see commercials about ...service organizations devoted to ending world hunger or war, we just blow them off" is inaccurate. These adverts would not be made if they weren't financially useful. You are assuming reactions, perhaps based upon your own. Both animal and human adverts of this type ask for the same method of payment, and both are accesible modes of "helping".
Vegans seldom have extra money, believe me. Cheap meat is often far less expensive than quality vegetables, and specialist vegan products (ice cream, chocolate, cakes, sauces, soya milk) are expensive.Being ethical, vegans also often buy as much fair trade or local produce as possible - also more expensive.The comment "some vegans just do it for the social benefits" is insulting. There is a strong vegan community, sure. Like minded people often get together. As many vegans are politically motivated, there is even more need for active groups and communities. Vegans usually have a very strong sense of empathy and compassion, and understand that imposing suffering in hidden sheds is not acceptable. Our beliefs are as important to us as any religion and are too often ridiculed. You can imagine the frustration that we feel at this joking and marginalisation when we are desperatly trying to fight suffering. Many of us have stood inside labs, fur farms and slaughter houses and still hear the noise of those places.
When you state "But why should we care if other people are suffering? They’re so far away, right?" and of course your right - out of sight out of mind. If there's something you can do to help a starving child, or a homeless guy, then of course you should. It's vital that you do, in fact. But compassion shouldn't be selective. While your eating that meat you occasionally eat, there is a shed very close to your home that is full of suffering individuals that just happen to not be human. They're right on your doorstep. What have you done to help them?
Just as a note: the corn and wheat that we kill forests to grow and then feed to cows and chicken is much easier shipped to Africa to feed malnourished children than cows and chickens.
I think it is normal that some people feel outraged that people defend animal rights when people are starving to death and what not.
But once you understand the connection between the two. You should know that going vegan is the best thing you can do to stop injustice in the world. To humans and animals.
People that work in slaughter houses often get injured or sick from the risky job they are. Not to mention the ones who work in leather treating factories, with all the chemicals.
Don't you find it insulting that while people are starving, animals are force fed just so more privileged people can eat them? Raising animals for food is a terrible waste of resources, water, grain, that could be feeding the starving masses.
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