I have been involved with animal rights activism and advocacy for about 27 years. The first time I was persuaded from my usual suburban languor to join the battle against normalised injustices, was with Animal Liberation Victoria, in Australia, back in the ‘80s. There I was: banner waving, chanting, marching and sitting-in on demonstrations against the use of animals in circuses, the barbaric torture and killing of animals for their fur, duck hunting, animal testing, factory farming, etc etc.. And yet I wasn’t vegan; not even vegetarian. Young Mountain Daughter was all fired up and railing against the use of animals by humans, but still she ate their disremembered body parts and secretions, wore their skins and used products with animal-derived ingredients. When the realisation of this alarming contradiction eventually hit me - and it did, like a proverbial freight train: this disconnect between the fight for the acknowledgement of animal rights and my life-style choices - I was shocked and ashamed - and from that day on, I went about veganising my life.
This looking outward and shaking a finger at others, yet not turning eyes toward one’s own behaviours, seems to be a common human trait. I and countless others, have a vision of hope that human-kind will rise above this curious phenomena by way of a raising of consciousness, of awareness achieved through respect. Respect for one’s self, the planet and all ‘creatures great and small’, with whom we will one day live in pace and harmony.
Repeated ignorance gets mistaken for knowledge. What is normalised by the majority cannot and should not be assumed to be ethically correct. Just because it has 'always been done' doesn't make it right. Human-invented, subjective decisions about which non-humans deserve respect, love and care, and which need to suffer and die for human use, make no sense. And leaving such decisions un-questioned, perpetuates the injustice and cruelty. What is needed is a fundamental shift in consciousness, that might lead to an ideal vegan world.
Some time back in the early ‘90s, I found myself wading waist deep in a cold lake, dodging bullets and the shouted abuse of men in camouflage clothing. Along with a couple of hundred others, I carried stunned and gut-shot birds to the first-aid tents. It was a war-zone. One ‘sportsman’, standing only a few feet away, aimed his weapon at my face and pulled the trigger. If he had not have been in an advanced state of inebriation, he would have been holding the gun steady and I wouldn’t be writing this now. I screamed and yelled and physically fought two men who were playing football with a live baby swan. I reported these incidents to the police present but they were more interested in eating barbecued duck.
Some people counter the ethical vegan stance with the argument that we’ve always eaten animals and used them so it is normal. However, humans have also always committed atrocities against other humans; murder rape, slavery etc.. is that any reason to continue these practices? A vegan planet would be one on which such things exist only in memory. We need to evolve. All animals should be treated with the same amount of respect. It’s not about humans giving rights to animals - it is that animals were born with those rights. Every sentient being has the innate right to live free of enslavement, torture and early death by murder. The idea that humans give animals rights is associated with the word 'compassion', which I personally have a problem with. It is generally an arbitrary gift bestowed upon the vulnerable by the dominant species. The truth is that all animals are born with the right to liberty. What would be ideal is a world-wide disabusing of the un-examined status-quo, where animals are the slaves of humans. And the way to see the wrongs we do to animals is through Awakening.
Some people counter the ethical vegan stance with the argument that we’ve always eaten animals and used them so it is normal. However, humans have also always committed atrocities against other humans; murder rape, slavery etc.. is that any reason to continue these practices? A vegan planet would be one on which such things exist only in memory. We need to evolve. All animals should be treated with the same amount of respect. It’s not about humans giving rights to animals - it is that animals were born with those rights. Every sentient being has the innate right to live free of enslavement, torture and early death by murder. The idea that humans give animals rights is associated with the word 'compassion', which I personally have a problem with. It is generally an arbitrary gift bestowed upon the vulnerable by the dominant species. The truth is that all animals are born with the right to liberty. What would be ideal is a world-wide disabusing of the un-examined status-quo, where animals are the slaves of humans. And the way to see the wrongs we do to animals is through Awakening.
The individual self is a construct; an illusion that is confined to the dream-state of the human animal. When this is seen, it will also be seen that every sentient being has an innate right to respect that is not contingent upon perceived 'personality' or species. Once humans see the truth of existence: that all living beings are manifestations of the one consciousness, then the unfortunate, anachronistic decision-making about the fate of an individual life based upon species can end. We all suffer, feel fear and pain. There is no separation. Humans have always placed non-humans outside the moral community in order to enslave them. The deeper issue is the normalisation of using other species at all. Any use of animals for human profit involves enslavement and is not of benefit to that species. This unfortunate paradigm must be seen for what it is, and undone. It is about Awakening: seeing the truth of existence so then the world can be seen as it is, so what can be created is a better reality of harmony and peace.
***
- Mountain Daughter (Jahara)
