Assignment 16: Speech- Lauren Spivey

Animal Cruelty

How many people would be crushed if they were one day walking through the park and saw an owner walking their dog and all of the sudden just starts beating the dog senselessly? The majority of people would. Most people would say that would be our morals within us talking but the ironic thing is, people that admit that can also be the same people who lets say, bully others without thinking about it or make fun of others and laugh about it. No one would actually confess to that because they know it’s wrong. It’s within your morals that you find what you think is right and wrong. Now I’m not saying animals are human beings because they’re not but the problem is the reaction that people have to different situations based on who the target of the situation is. Animal abuse is imminent among us and it’s not just your household pets. Animal cruelty is bad no matter what the species, even if it’s human.

            Animals and humans aren’t the same.  There are clear differences, but aren’t there also similarities as well? We can all breathe in some way shape or form; we all have a pulse, which means a heartbeat, which means living. Over the summer I watched Blackfish, the cruel and harsh truth about the animals at SeaWorld.  Tilikum was the main focus throughout the documentary due to his bad behavior and cruelty towards the other animals. He was the only male and therefore only source for reproduction at SeaWorld but they couldn’t trust him. He was violent and caused numerous deaths of both Orcas and humans. Taking nature out of nature for human pleasure can lead to bad circumstances for both people and animals, and through that we are leading into the idea of reintroduction of animals to their natural habitat. Some might argue that animals might have a better life in captivity and that can be true if one is raised in captivity because they don’t know anything different but that’s not the purpose of wild species. They were made to live on their own and know how to fend for themselves and putting these animals in captivity takes away that purpose because now they just get fed and groomed and taken care of and their basic purposes are stripped away. Some might say this is happening in the human species today as well. We are gradually, whether you want to admit it or not, heading towards a lifestyle like this where everything is given to us. We can see it in schools these days, kids don’t want to do work, and we look for the easiest way out of everything. I’m guilty of it myself. It’s a form of evolution that’s not helpful to our specie in any way.  These animals are doing the same thing, they do the minimum required to receive their reward of food or other amenities.

            But animals caged for our entertainment are just one topic.  An estimated 8 million animals are slaughtered each year in America alone through painful and tragic means just for human’s enjoyment through food and clothing.  In the Sanford article “The Moral Status of Animals” they discuss morality of killing animals.  They pose the question of “is it morally justifiable to kill an innocent animal for the satisfaction of another”. This would be like killing an alligator just so someone else can wear it and be admired by others and considered fashionable.  It’s inexcusable. We don’t take into account the repercussions of our actions. Due to human actions we have caused a rate of extinction that’s unfathomable. In Discovery Channels documentary on Racing Extinction they mentioned that species are becoming extinct 1000 times faster than what they are supposed to, solely based on human action and greed for power.  We can’t just sit back and ignore what we are doing to the world because we will eventually destroy it and have nothing left. We’ll be like the people in Wall-E who have to live in space and have computer controlled lives and ride around on hover boards.   We have to do something.

            Suffering is what we humans try our best to avoid. Lesli Bisgould gave a Ted Talk at the University of Toronto on the subject of animal cruelty. She mentions “It’s necessary for an animal to suffer whenever we say so.” The premise being that humans define “cruel” and we decide when it is necessary to subject animal’s self-described “humane” experimentation to better suit our comfort.   We do things that are completely avoidable, for example when we humans find something “harmful” to our way of life; we do whatever we find necessary to fix the problem.  For example, if a bear mauls a hiker, then the legal authorities decide it is necessary to kill that bear. What we don’t realize is that it’s an innate behavior. If the animal feels threatened it is their instinct to protect themselves and their offspring…just like people do when confronted with a dangerous situation. Even though we all say we don’t abuse animals, we all do in some way, shape or form. Everything in life can be related back to the environment whether it is the process the animals go through so that we can have food; the cars we drive creating pollution which causes changes in weather; the deforestation that we do so we can have paper destroys millions of animals’ habitats. We don’t think twice when deciding to eat a burger or drive our car to the store because it’s a normal everyday life thing that we do. Small changes in our life can help though, through walking to the store, buying less meat which in return abates the income that these factories make, which then leads to less animals being slaughtered and abused.

            Let me share some statistics that could be eye opening for some of you. Dosomething.org created a list of facts about domestic violence which include: “More than 50% the fur in the US comes from China, where millions of dogs and cats are often skinned alive and bled to death for their fur. Chinese fur is often mislabeled, so if you wear any fur, there’s no sure way of knowing whose skin you’re in.” this is relevant because the majority of US goods come from China so that fur lining on your new coat could very well be from a domestic animal that was abused. “Over 115 million animals – mice, rats, dogs, cats, rabbits, monkeys, birds, among others – are killed in laboratory experiments worldwide for chemical, drug, food, and cosmetics testing every year.” I don’t believe that enough attention is brought to the ugly side of production and industry in America. There are so many things that go on behind the scenes that we as consumers can’t see and I think we all take it for granted. We need to bring attention to these awful events and show the manufacturers that it’s cruel and uncalled for. There is a better way to create products and if making the product calls for harming an animal, then it is most likely not worth it.

            I know what you’re thinking. It’s easier said than done. We as humans see our needs as priority and it takes a lot of motivation and drive to actually give up what we want in life. We as a society need to move past this. We can’t continue on living if we don’t acknowledge the things that are coexisting with us in this world. I beg of you, I don’t want to live like the people in Wall-E and I don’t think you do either.

                       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

·               Blackfish.  Dir.  Gabriela Cowperthwaite.  Perf.  John Hargrove, Samantha Berg, Mark             Simmons, Kim Ashdown, Dean Gomersall.  Magnolia Pictures, 2013. Netflix.  Web.  9 June 2015.

·               Gruen, Lori. "The Moral Status of Animals." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosphy. N.p., 13 Sept. 2010. Web. 12 Dec. 2015.

·               Bisgould, L. (2014, May 6). TEDx Talks. Lesli Bisgould: It’s Time to Re-evaluate Our Relationship with Animals

·               "11 Facts About Animal Cruelty." 11 Facts About Animal Cruelty. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2015. <https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-animal-cruelty>.

·               Racing Extinction. Dir. Louie Psihoyoys. EDiscovery Channel, 2015. 2 December 2015.