“You can tell a lot about a person in the way they treat animals. One hour with Ricky and the dog’s on drugs.”
That’s a line from the episode of the “Trailer Park Boys,” a Canadian mockumentary, seen below. I posted it for both humor’s sake (because it’s my favorite show, and I wanted to introduce you to it like pork-barrel spending in an otherwise solid bill in congress) and to make some serious arguments about animal rights.
http://youtu.be/SSMzbuKTM6Y
What does it say about us as a society when we treat the poor, disabled and, yes, even other species ONLY as commodities for our own benefit, or with utter disdain and disrespect?
Many in the so-called “pro-life movement” are Christian, so with no shortage of glee, I am going to remind them of the words of their hero, Jesus Christ: “Truly, whatever you have done to the least of these you have done to me.” That should settle the argument for our interesting Judeo-Christian friends. Christ commanded his followers to take care of all living things on this planet — not just?our own species, which we suck at to begin with.
For many of these right wing people, if it looks like a “sea-monkey” (to quote Ellen Page in the brilliant movie “Juno”) and resides in the body of a human female, it has rights (the mother bearing the child… that’s another story). Once it’s all born, however, it’s off to the indoctrination center to be stripped of its?individuality and trained to be an obedient worker in our unjust corporate-run economic?system.
Just ask George Carlin:
The only time in your life that you matter to these pro-lifers (assuming you are white, because racism seems to come with the territory) is when you reach military age, so they can make you put on a uniform, give you a killing machine?and teach you how to use other human beings?as target?practice. My cocker spaniel, Bentley (pictured above), would look up at me and shake his head.
Meanwhile, while many of these religious?men (because they always seem to be supporters of the Bigger D*ck Foreign Policy) are trying to be untrained and unpaid gynecologists, nobody seems to notice or care about the lives of other species which are supposedly “inferior” to us humans. Whatever happened to looking after the earth and “the least of these” like Jesus commanded? I’m not going to stand on some street corner with a sign that says?”save the whales,” but maybe we all should be a little bit more conscientious and compassionate toward other living creatures in this world, not just our own. We’re bad enough at looking after each other, let alone other species.
Without making too fine a point on it, it really does start with YOU.
We build things to kill each other with, for the purpose of obtaining wealth and power that never satisfies. Animals kill because they are hungry. Who is more “Christian?” Or, really, who is happier?
If you believe in evolution, you also have a responsibility because your ideology teaches that we are related to the?animals. I’m a carnivore and probably always will be, and?even people who like a good, organic, non-GMO burger can show respect for the creature that gave its life so your right wing thoin?(*ss)?doesn’t go hungry. You don’t have to cram cows or chickens into confined spaces so they can defecate on each other and live in inhuman conditions for the purpose of mass-producing if you believe in these principles. I’m not going to describe to you what is in the cow’s milk you’re drinking. Those who think that is acceptable practice have lost the plot.
“Ignorance is bliss when ’tis folly to be wise,” Thomas Gray once said. Would you leave your child in a car in the middle of summer with the windows rolled up? If you would, you deserve to have your passenger window smashed and your offspring?”kidnapped” by a concerned citizen. So why do I see so many dogs crying for their lives in parking lots with the sun beating down on them in crappy blue Chevy Novas (Sorry, Axel)? Do we simply not care? If I lose one dog, I’ll just get another one, right? Living things are not toys or pawns. Windows can be replaced. No two living things, even within a species, are alike. We are all unique and special and worthy of life. If Christian conservatives can hijack a word like “pro-life,” I say liberals can hijack it back.
If you have ever owned a dog and treated him or her with the respect and love they deserve, you will find no truer friend. They will be there for you through thick and thin, even laying down their very life for you if they feel it is necessary. They are selfless, loyal creatures. Humans? — get bloody real.
Christian conservatives like to lecture us all about “respecting life,” as if they own the idea and only THEY value such things. Maybe you didn’t choose to have a human child,?but you DID choose to purchase a?pet, whether from the store or the SPCA, and as such, you have a moral and ethical responsibility to treat that pet like one of your own kids.
As for J.C., animal abusers?were right up there in criminality with bankers?and abusers of women, in his?world. If you are unfamiliar with the story, here’s a scene?from the 1977 TV miniseries “Jesus of Nazareth” that will exemplify what I’m talking about:
I apologize to those of other faiths (that I admit I am largely ignorant of) or of no faith at all, as my words may cause you to believe I am ignoring you entirely. I’m not. But if you DO have a faith, this shouldn’t even be a debate. The central figure of your religion, your God, COMMANDED you to look after the earth and its inhabitants. That’s not my opinion. Google it if you don’t have a Bible kicking around.
If rights really do come from a higher power, they are non-negotiable. And what makes you so special that you deserve more rights than someone who, by the way, actually follows religious doctrine? Your Rover understands this more than you do. If you believe in that sort of thing, he is probably there to remind you of those things that you have forgotten in life. You have Rover. Scrooge had his 3 ghosts and a former partner.
These are things I just don’t understand. Maybe you can help me. Or am I barking up the wrong tree?
George Carlin, a self-avowed and proud atheist, once said, “Conservatives want to raise live babies to be dead soldiers.” At least fetuses?deserve to live in the minds of many Americans. If you’re out of the womb or of a different species, you?either lose all your rights or didn’t have them in the first place — rights allegedly guaranteed under the?Constitution and Bill of Rights.
It’s one thing when we are arguing issues like rights and freedoms, as we often do, for human beings, but other living things have had no rights since… forever. So they know what it feels like to be an immigrant, or a black person, or Latino — unwanted, shunned, treated less than human — and they can still forgive and love you, even when?we have committed acts of horrible inhumanity toward them. If there is proof of a higher power, it is in living creatures who only kill for food and in children, who get that, but are doomed to amnesia for the rest of their lives.
I have spoken a lot here about pets, but what about other animals? What sort of cruel, selfish, inhumane people murder elephants in cold blood for no other reason but that they want the elephant’s tusks? They’re not hungry — just greedy. I will spare you the photos. If you can look at them without having nightmares, I pray for your soul.
To me, the only two reasons for taking the life of another living thing is because you’re hungry or in self-defense. Otherwise, you are committing an unspeakable act of murder for the unjust purpose of feeding your own greed, selfishness, or blood lust.
Why have I referenced religion so frequently in this missive? If you have no faith and are simply here by chance, you can make up whatever rules regarding human behavior you care to and your purpose for having laws and rules is to keep us from carrying out our basic instinct — to take a life for our own benefit. Survival of the fittest, right? To protect us and everyone else from ourselves. But people of faith, if they truly observe their faith, are commanded by their Creator to defend life wherever possible. You don’t have a choice. “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” If you’re a homeless person, chances are, you neighbor is of the canine variety. ?I can’t speak for other faiths, but?Bill Maher put it eloquently in the clip below:
I am decidedly pro-choice on the issue of abortion, and I am not here to practice my typing or to challenge your position on where life begins, or on your faith or lack thereof. I am writing to challenge you to think about what the term “pro-life” means and who it really refers to. We all know what the term means to evangelical Christians. But what does pro-life mean to YOU? PETA is?pro-life without even knowing it. Do right-wing Christians own that term? Seriously, if you’re not a Christian or are pro-choice, are you pro-DEATH? Is John McCain, a guy who can’t wait to send 18-year-old kids to war “to protect American values,” pro-life just because he thinks he can dictate what women can do with their own bodies?
How much less of a person is my cocker spaniel Bentley than anyone else, human or not?
I’m not telling you (since you have no doubt watched the “Trailer Park Boys” video above) to run around with guns and give Mrs. Peterson’s dog weed brownies and let your daughter shoot you in the behind. That’s just to get you past the first paragraph. What I would like you to get out of this is, whether you are a person of faith or not, EVERY life matters.
I spoke about a young girl in another article who committed suicide because she was bullied by a pedophile. Amanda Todd’s life mattered. She just didn’t know it because nobody told her. But now she’s gone. However, we can still make a difference for others, human or otherwise. The one thing we have in common is that we all share this planet, we all breathe the same air, and we all have the ability to be better than we were yesterday. Yes, we indeed need a Animal’s Bill of Rights.
Even the life of that little mouse who scurries across your kitchen floor in the middle of the night because you’re too lazy to clean the place up matters. Get a broom and… anyway…
As I complete this long-winded epitaph, and you are no doubt checking your watches or banging your head upon your desk, I have one final question for you to ponder:
Does pro-life only apply to humans? Or am I barking up the wrong tree?
