I hate Animal Rights

 

 

Did you know that the ASPCA, the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was founded in 1866? Just one year after the 13^th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified abolishing slavery, and just three short years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. I can’t be the only person that finds the timing of this conspicuous?  Slavery barely in the rearview mirror and folk had moved on to protections and safeguards for Lassie, Mr. Ed, and Bambi. 

 People, of their own volition, chose to create an organization for the sole purpose of protecting animal rights when human rights were still hanging in the balance.  Blacks and women still couldn’t vote, they still weren’t considered equals, and some felt it vitally important, at the time, to make sure animals had a voice, that animals had someone to champion their cause.  How ridiculous does this sound to you in 2015?... now multiply it by a thousand for those struggling for human rights in 1866.

 I’m a big believer in priorities.  I’m rational. How could animal rights be a priority in 1866?  The nation had just come through its most difficult self-inflicted wound. Couldn’t those finite resources have been used in a better space?  Couldn’t that time have been used to create a wellness plan for our fragile union? Free market thinking is great when it comes to business and technological advances but, it is lacking when it comes to fixing social ills, and can often be a smoke screen that diverts real attention away from real issues. 

We really need someone to create a social hierarchy so that resources can be properly allocated, so that finite resources aren’t wasted in flights of fancy or on far less serious matters.  Can we imagine a world where insect cancer is given a higher priority than human cancer, where a scrape on a bicycler’s knee is attended to in an emergency room before a gunshot wound? 

Those that chose animals over humans in 1866 should be ashamed of themselves.  The problem is they are not alone.  In 2015 there are over 35 international groups whose sole charge is to fight for the rights of animals.  It always fascinates me when I see large demonstrations of people organizing to protect animals.  I often wonder where the self-awareness is?  Where is the humanity?  Where is the respect?  People get treated as less than human every day.  How is this not the highest breach of humanity?  How can it be that the contrast is not distinct and resolute? How can humans overlook humans for animal’s sake? Animal activist seek humane treatment and protected status, but guess what... animals aren't HUMAN so treating them humanely is a flight of fancy. 

The hypocrisy is palpable, and yet it often goes unseen, un-smelled, and un-tasted. Dog fighting is illegal, and can’t be wagered on, but boxing and MMA are imbedded in our cultural fabric, and is provided as entertainment to the masses.  We can kill animals for food, and clothing; we can use animals for transportation, and entertainment in the form of horse racing.  The contradictions are dubious at best.

 

 

Logically animals appear to be an inferior prey, put here to serve the purpose of humans, so why would they need rights? The only conclusion I can come to is that they don’t need rights.  They only have rights because the ruling class at the time chose animals they love over people they despise.  A few weeks back a lion got shot and killed on SAFARI and it gained international notice.  Humans get shot and killed in SOCIETY every day, and barely get a second look.  Human life is becoming more and more de-valued.  Human life is moving down the importance meter.  It’s most devastating because human life should be the most precious thing to HUMANS.