The objectification and abuse of animals: is it any different to what we do to each other?

 We know slavery is an historical wrong. We know human rights abuse is an historical wrong. We know women's lack of autonomy is an historical wrong. We know that homosexuality, and gender rights, have been too long coming to civilization. Nowadays, many more of us are politically aware of the injustices minorities have faced throughout the ages. As we become more aware, the politics of freedom changes, and those who were once slaves, or dehumanized, or disenfranchised, know what is to be seen as equal in society.

But is it any different for animals? We enslaved people of color because we could. Elements within human society have controlled and manipulated and subjugated other elements within  society because they could. And they got away with it because they could.

But is it any different how we treat animals? We kill and eat, wear, and enslave animals by the millions every day. We wear their skin, and we eat their flesh and organs. We eat their eggs, and drink the milk intended for their young.

We experiment on them, testing drugs and cigarettes and chemicals and makeup products. Because we can. 

In the following videos, we can see some of the horrific things we do to animals every day. We eat our steaks, and drink our milk, and wear our woolen sweaters and leather jackets and shoes, and we give them special names like pork and veal and beef.

But is how we treat animals really any different to how we've treated other humans in the past?

 WARNING: THE FOLLOWING VIDEOS CONTAIN IMAGES SOME PEOPLE MAY FIND VERY DISTURBING: 

 

 How we kill chickens: in this documentary we examine how thousands of chickens are killed in a single hour. Do we bother to think of the suffering of these animals as we tuck into our KFC or our Chicken McNuggets? Is the failure to look at how we perceive the food industry really any different to how we looked at slavery? Or how we still look at slavery?

. In the following video, Slaughterhouse: What The Meat Industry Hides, we explore all kinds of aspects of the animals' last moments before changing from a living, breathing, sentient creature capable of loving and caring, to meat for human consumption.

How many of us think of the objectification of the animals whose body parts sit on the plate in front of us, surrounded by vegetables? Is our failure to recognize this fundamental truth of what happens in the meat industry really any different to what we think of those we objectify? Of the people who still to this day work in inhumane conditions, working for a meager wage, or working in modern day sweat shops in places like China, India, and Central America?

We eat meat, and wear leather and animals skins because we can. It's legal, and we can get away with it because it is. We're given permission by society - by other people - to exploit and use animals as we wish. There are laws, of course, that govern the treatment of animals, but does anyone think these animals think their lives are fair? Again, how is it any different to how we subjugate and abuse other humans, and classify them as being less than us?