Animal welfare is something that I
truly believe that we need to take seriously in our society and the infliction
of cruelty towards animals remains a major injustice and is one in which we are
obligated to tackle. We have all been touched by the atrocity of what happened
to Cody. It was a senseless and despicable act of violence inflicted on a
defenceless family loved pet. In the context of the reaction to this abhorrent crime, I believe however we all need to think a bit deeper about how the same lack of empathy, which
allowed people to inflict this cruelty on Cody, is also missing from those who
inflict cruelty on other people. In addition, I believe we all need to consider much more broadly how we treat animals in our society.
As Jonathan Safran Foer outlines, "cruelty
is not only the wilful causing of suffering but indifference to it." He adds, "cruelty
is dependent on having an understanding of cruelty and the ability to chose
against it or chose to ignore it." The reality as we all know it is that our
society is responsible for grievous inflictions of cruelty towards animals for
pleasure in blood sports, through testing of cosmetics on animals and through
our enslavement of animals in circuses and sea parks.
As Foer further highlights our economy has been designed in a way where animals in the factory
farming process are treated as simply another factor in the profit maximisation
business model, which calculates
how quickly they can be made to grow, how tightly they can be packed, how much
or little they can eat, how sick they can get, and ultimately how close to
death it can keep animals without killing them. It is not an exaggeration to
say that the factory farming process pushes many animals well beyond their
biological limits. I for one don't blame farmers
for the existence of this system. As the proportion of our income spent on food
has fallen over the years the
farmers have had no choice but to produce food at a reduced production cost.
Within the natural environment it is also important to acknowledge that largely due to the demands that we place on our planet to fuel our endlessly growing economy, 200 species of plant and animal life go extinct every day. I'm sure I wouldn't be alone in considering this not only in the category of cruelty inflicted on the natural world
but as a moral tragedy on an epic scale.
My second concern is how our treatment of animals is reflective of our
broader treatment of each other. For is it not exactly the same lack of empathy which
enables those who inflict senseless cruelty towards animals which also enables
people to inflict cruelty towards the elderly or children or people from
different races and religions. While everyone rightly demanded justice against the perpetrators of the horrible crime against Cody it is also important that we remember the many people
in our society who have been victims of violent crime and who have suffered result
as a consequence of the cruelty of other people. This link between cruelty
towards animals and the infliction of cruelty on vulnerable people is widely
acknowledged. As the philosopher Immanuel Kant stated, “We can judge the heart of a man by his
treatment of animals. He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his
dealings with men.” We must
recognise that animals belong to the most vulnerable of all the downtrodden in
our society and animal rights represents the purest form of social justice. Tackling
this injustice and understanding the causes of animal cruelty will enable us to
better understand and reduce cruelty in our society overall.
As individuals I believe that we can make a difference to this world. We
not only vote come election time but each and every time we purchase a product
and all of us have the ability to set examples and influence the behavior of
our friends and family. It is also important that our
elected representatives take action to reduce the cruelty prevalent in the
system. As Jonathan Safran Foer states, “It
shouldn't be the consumer's responsibility to figure out what's cruel and
what's kind, what's environmentally destructive and what's sustainable. Cruel
and destructive food products should be illegal. We don't need the option of
buying children's toys made with lead paint, or aerosols with
chlorofluorocarbons, or medicines with unlabeled side effects. And we don't
need the option of buying factory-farmed animals.”
In
addition to our work at the Assembly against Animal cruelty the Green Party in the European parliament
has been active in bringing in legislation and campaigning on a wide range of
animal rights issues including:
- Ensuring that the regulation on the treatment of animals in live exports is strengthened and enforced with the objective of banning live exports.
- Brining in a ban on the cruel and unnecessary practice of animal testing of cosmetics.
- Supporting events to highlight the horrific reality of the foie gras industry.
- Pushing to ensure that the EU ban on confining pregnant pigs to sow stalls for their entire pregnancy is enacted.
- Calling for radically reform the Common Fisheries Policy to tackle the by-catch of birds, dolphins and porpoises.
- And Ending the imports of wild birds for the pet trade.
The ability of politicians who believe
in pushing for animal welfare depends on your support and I would encourage you
to take animal rights into consideration the next time you make your choice at
the ballot box.
I hope that we can all find it in our hearts
to open our eyes to injustices that exist in this world. Let’s employ the gift
of humanities unique sense of reason and consider if what we are doing is right
and ask ourselves how we can all change to make the world a better place.