A change has come at last for animal activists everywhere. Two weeks ago, SeaWorld announced that they will finally stop breeding killer whales. After the documentary "Blackfish" brought the dangers of keeping orcas in captivity, people campaigned to put an end to its breeding program. This is truly the beginning of a much larger movement that has built up over the years. Animals basically provide us with everything -- food, clothes, entertainment -- and at first glance it all seems great for us, but we don’t see the consequences when we eat bacon, or when we wear a leather jacket or go to a trip to the zoo. What is fun for us is a life of misery for the animals. Sure, the PETA commercials with the sad dogs and music are super depressing, but they’re showcasing the truths we refuse to admit. Animals are suffering and going extinct, and we’re the ones to blame.
Many like a good steak or a good chicken wing, and every now and then you think “poor animal, but thanks for the food,” and you keep eating it. But then you google factory farming and you are literally disgusted by what goes on. Hens are kept in the smallest of cages, chickens and pigs are crammed in full sheds, and cows are kept in overcrowded feedlots, inside dark sheds.
Hens cannot spread their wings in their confined space and often get their beaks removed so they don’t peck at one another. They are given antibiotics to make them grow faster as keep them alive in the unsanitary conditions they’re forced to live in (overuse of antibiotics potentially can lead to antibiotic-resistant bacteria that can threaten human health).
And since most animals have been genetically modified to grow larger or produce more eggs or milk (chickens, for instance, grow so large that their legs can’t support them), they end up dying from starvation or dehydration because they can’t reach their food or water.
Nine billion chickens are killed each year, and 305 million hens are used for their eggs. They are the most used and killed animals in the food industry, and yet there is no law that protects them from any abuse. Cows are separated from their calves, and in dairy farms the mother cow will be frantically crying out for her calves days after being separated. Just because they don’t speak, it doesn’t mean that they don’t feel. A solution would be to go vegetarian or vegan, but truthfully that just doesn’t work for everyone, because we’ve already grown accustomed to a certain way of living, and also living a vegan lifestyle is much more expensive -- thus encouraging you to keep eating what you are eating now.
Every year, millions of animals are killed in the clothing industry in the name of fashion. All across the world, animals suffer for every jacket and belt made for stores internationally. In fur farms, animals are confined to cramped and dirty cages, and are killed in the cruelest ways possible: suffocation, electrocution, gas, poison.
More than half of the fur purchased from the U.S. comes from China, where millions of cats and dogs are hanged, skinned alive for their fur, or bled to death. Chinese fur is often mislabeled, so if you wear fur coats, you never actually know what animal it is that you’re wearing. And other nations, like Canada, celebrate an annual seal slaughter where thousands of baby seals are bludgeoned or shot to death.
For the fleece and skin market, sheep produce the wool. Shearers are paid by volume, not by the hour, thus encouraging fast work without any regard to the sheep. In the process, many a time they cut or rip off teats, ears, and tails by acting recklessly. A PETA investigation in shearing sheds in the U.S. caught shearers punching, kicking, and stepping on sheep, hitting them in the face with the electric clippers, or standing on their heads, necks, or hind limbs. Male lambs are castrated two weeks after they’re born all in the sake of providing warmth to us.
These are only some examples of the abuse done upon the animals in the name of clothing. Bloody deaths and excruciating pain just so we can look nice.
Animals aren’t entertainers, but still they are forced to perform silly things for our entertainment. In circuses, in order to force the animals in performing their tricks, they use whips, tight collars, and other tools to entertain its audience. Since they spend a lot of time travelling, the animals often time go through large periods of time without food, water, veterinary care and face extreme temperatures. The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus chain has elephants for more than 26 hours straight. Tigers and lions confined in cages don’t have enough space to move around, and sometimes they even have two of the cats crammed in the already cramped cage. Frustrated by their abuse, sometimes an elephant just snaps. There have been several cases where an elephant kills its trainer or some of the spectators, and roams off into the streets where it is ultimately gunned down by police force.
Zoos appear different because they try their best to recreate animals' home environment. But their artificial landscape cannot recreate their freedom and wide open spaces -- instead, they are caged and are lonely. Many facilities breed animals because the audience just loves babies, but they grow up quickly and are shipped away because we lose interest in them.
Even using animals in sports isn’t fun because even if they win they’re so damaged and if they lose they lose their life. Bulls in bullfighting are weakened beforehand and are drugged; handlers shove their horns down to disorient them, put petroleum jelly in their eyes to blur their vision, but they still lose because it’s the matador’s mission to kill them.
Horses and greyhounds who race and become sick are drugged to hide their sickness so they can continue to race. When they stop winning races, they are euthanized, shot, or sold to be experimented on or to slaughterhouses. Horses are also victims when it comes to horse-drawn carriages. They are forced to toil in all weather, traffic, and walk in pavement all day. They breathe in the exhaust fumes in their surroundings and are often debilitated by their harsh environments. When they grow too old to walk or carry heavy burdens, the horses don’t return to their green pastures. They are slaughtered and become food for cats and dogs or for zoos. These beautiful animals aren’t protected by the government or by their caretakers and are being stripped away from living the life they are meant to be living in the wild.
But the wild has changed too, also because of us. Global warming which has changed the weather patterns across the world doesn’t just affect our way of living but animals too. The polar bear could virtually become extinct unless the pace of global warming slows down. The Arctic sea ice is melting at a rate of 9 percent every decade. The rising sea levels is also threatening sea turtles. Colder sites produce male offspring, warmer produce female. Since the nests are becoming warmer, the sea turtle population is threatened by its lack of male offspring being produced. The giant panda and the tiger are not only poached but their land is constantly being destroyed by man, thus threatening their species. Deforestation is also impacting the migration of birds and the lives of countless other animals like the mountain gorilla and the orangutan. So when we’re not killing them for sport or food, we’re killing them by killing where they live. When do they win?
Over the last 40 years, 11 different species of animals have gone extinct -- most due to global warming, which affected their habitats and thus their ways of living, but some like the West African black rhino were poached for their horn, which was believed to possess aphrodisiac powers. Animals have entirely died off because we are selfish beings who take from those who can’t say no.
The solution has always been there: Just stop going to the zoo, stop eating bacon, stop wearing certain types of clothes. But it’s easier said than done. Expecting everyone to boycott animal-made products or forms of entertainment is like telling people to stop being racist or mean to one another; it’ll more than likely never happen. People are used to certain lifestyles at this point, and it’s very hard to change that. Honestly, who doesn’t like bacon or furry coats? But it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try. If we all can give up these simple pleasures for the sake of future generations knowing what a lion or a polar bear is, then that is the best incentive ever. The animals don’t get a say but we do, and it’s time to act. Change won't come right away among us, so we can demand change in government, demand for acts for animal rights. But a change needs to come and it needs to come now.
