For the Animals

Animals don’t have rights like people. They should. We should look out for them, not torture them. Our entire society is set up for humans to dismiss the suffering of animals so that we can go on like everything is rosy and that their pain doesn’t exist. It does. Suffering is suffering. This weighs heavily on my mind, always has. I cannot ever lose my sympathy for people of course. This goes without saying. But also, I cannot ever lose my sympathy for animals. To do so, would make me a blight on the planet; a real asshole stinking up the place. In an ideal world, the only meat I’d eat would come from an animal who died naturally, say of old age or an unfortunate mishap like he drowned or something. Then in my mind I would not be adding anymore suffering. I rarely find these kinds of animals though. Eating happy farm animals who died of old age would work, if I could find them. Stores should label this info so I could check it out before eating them. Shooting an old buck in the woods, I could live with, if I truly needed to eat right then. I couldn’t lose the respect. When I find an animal lying by the side of the road injured, or any other place, it is my obligation to try and help him (if I’m not starving) and not pass blindly by. I do not want to fall into the trap of saying, it’s only an animal. Nothing can be done. Or that I shouldn’t interfere in the natural process. Because truth is truth, pain is pain, and the golden rule applies to everyone.   

            I’m trying hard these days to become a minimalist, and more importantly, a vegetarian. And to know where my goddamn food comes from; how the plant or animal was raised, how they lived, and how they died. Mostly, I’m just trying not to eat that much in general, to alleviate the tangled uncertainly of it all, the barbarianism of the market-place food. When I die, preferably very old and happy, I hope a poor starving polar bear and her cub can make a nice meal out of me, so I can give back, rightly so, to animals.