| bad taste times |
| Thursday, 07 August 2008 | |
 bad taste times written by: trev, veganunderground.com This week the animal rights organization, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, tried to run an ad across Canada that raised more than a few hackles. It was widely reported in the news and, as I’m sure PETA had intended, incited expression of opinion ranging from casual to incendiary. It was a simple text ad that related the recent, grisly murder and decapitation of a passenger aboard a Greyhound bus in Manitoba, Canada, to the everyday slaughter of food animals. Of course it pissed people off. I suspect even many vegans thought that PETA had gone too far this time and had been too insensitive to those directly affected by this bizarre and heinous crime. I also had this reaction at first. Then I thought about it a bit. Even though it never ran (although more people saw it in the news than ever would have seen it in limited print) the ad worked – it made me think about animals being mercilessly and cruelly killed in abattoirs, which we all know happens. I’m one of the aware, and it made me relive the stored video segments in my mind which I keep turned off because of their horrific nature. This is all PETA wanted to do. Sometimes you have to punch people in the gut to get a reaction. The comparison is totally valid. Food animals live tortured, painful lives and die gruesome, frightening deaths. America kills over 1 million animals per hour for food products and nobody really thinks about it. One man dies such a death and the whole world takes notice (probably also because it was a rare occurrence in mild-mannered Canada). PETA’s ad asks the question, what’s the difference between humans and animals? It insinuates another, more painful question: If a society is so accepting of the killing of one creature, why not all creatures? Whether we realize it or not, whether we accept it or not, our daily lives are rooted in violence. En masse, we consume the products of violent oppression and brutal slayings of other beings many times a day, without giving it a thought. On the other side, it seems that PETA took advantage of a human tragedy to promote their own agenda. My fear as a vegan, is that I will be cast as villain by association. PETA is no stranger to controversy. It is their usual tactic. Someone’s got to step into the line of fire and take a few bullets for us. The more I think about this ad, the more it makes simple sense. It is simple sense that is missing from our judgment of these issues. It is the lack of simple sense that causes us to spit fire whenever someone stands up and points out our greatest faults to us. Our food system enslaves and destroys us, just as it does the animals we consume. We are not villains, but victims. How many of us squirmed with secret, sadistic glee at reading of this bloody crime in little, old Manitoba? How many of us searched the news articles on the internet hoping for a more graphic account, or a haunting photo? How many of us would have chanted, entranced and bloodthirsty, for mercilessness in the ancient Roman coliseum if we were alive then? Is there really a difference between the random, senseless killing of one man, and the needless slaughter of millions of animals? Is there then a difference between the politically motivated genocides that happen around the world and the politically corrupt system that effortlessly destroys life on the staggering scale of agribusiness? Are these violent mechanisms of politics, culture and consumption driven by the same internal mechanism that has burned deep within our dna since the dawn of humanity? Are we, at our primordial core, a species full of hatred for other species, and ourselves? The simple answer is, yes. All of us. All PETA did was wave it in our faces. Peta's response to hatemail over this ad. |
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