Pocahontas Got It Right (Post 3)

            A moral is defined by the Merriam Webster dictionary as “concerning or relating to what is right and wrong in human behavior.” Right and wrong is black and white, something can not be “somewhat right” or “right under a certain circumstance” or “wrong only sometimes.” So why can some one own- and love their pet, but turn right around and support the killing of an animal that has been through more abuses then the human mind could imagine possible, just for their dinner plate.

Suffering is a universal concept, there is suffering in humans where there is lack of food, government support, or education. Yet there is suffering in animals in every nation, no matter how advanced it may be. In the US we have a tendency to over do things, as to show off to other nations. Well as to follow tradition our animal cruelty rates are higher than every other nation in the world, including the ones that eat domestic pets. Do Something states, “Over 100 million animals – mice, rats, dogs, cats, rabbits, monkeys, birds, among others – are killed in U.S. laboratories for chemical, drug, food, and cosmetics testing every year.” (Dosomething.org) This is more than any other country that tests on animals.

In an article by Michael J Thompson called, Why We Have Ethical Obligations to Animals: Animal Welfare and the Common Good, he shares, “Seeing our ethical obligations as grounded not in animals and their intrinsic value or their intrinsic qualities but rather in the ways our relations toward them can be evaluated is crucial.” (Thompson 194.) Meaning we should not treat animals well because they can do much for us, but treat them well just because of the symbiotic relationship we live in with them.  They need us and we need them.

            Though everyone has morals, they are translated differently from person to person. It is a universal concept but not seen the same way between all people. Animals have lived in close relationship with humans since the dawn of time, the creation of humans. Their kind was on the planet before human kind. We take and take and take from them. We need food, slaughter a pig. We are afraid a cosmetic may be harmful to humans, just test it on a mouse. Because they can not retaliate, they can not stand up and say “actually I do not want a growth on my face so no, I will not try your makeup.” Human beings live in a world that they think is all theirs, they see something they want or need they take it with no consideration of the consequences it could pose. And they are not stopped which fuels this need. If we keep taking and taking the world will be rid of elegant jungle cats due to illegal poaching, small creatures, essential to their ecosystem will be gone due to fur trapping, and nearly all meat and dairy will be diseased from the lack of regulation or care. Maybe when the human world sees the horrors animals go through, then finally there will be a stop to the abuse, neglect and pure ignorance toward our four legged counterparts.  

And I leave you with this incredibly relevant song

"You think you own whatever land you land on

The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim

But I know every rock and tree and creature

Has a life, has a spirit, has a name"

                        

Word count (527)

         Thompson , Michael J. "Join Academia.edu & Share your research with the world." Why We Have Ethical Obligations to Animals: Animal Welfare and the Common Good. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2013.

"11 Facts About Animal Cruelty." Do Something. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2013.