Hello and welcome to the first post of "Illegally Sighted"; a blog in which I intend to document my thoughts on a whole manner of topics - everything from daily life, beats & breaks, beer tastings, animal welfare. Just about everything. Anything to take my mind from the incessant traffic noise that can be heard outside (currently dominated by what sounds like an endless convoy of two-stroke mopeds).
Indeed, animal welfare will be at the centre of this debut post, or rather, why people seem so affronted by those who hold animal welfare in greater importance than human rights.
I have just finished reading a blog post by one Sam De Brito (whose All Men Are Liars blog is the only such publication I read regularly), in which he questions the conviction and passion behind peoples' advocacy, and indeed the advocacy itself, i.e. that Australians are far more concerned with the fate of thousands of cows bound for Indonesia than the fate of thousands of people who have left Indonesia in search of a better life (some of whom suffered a merciless fate some months ago when their boat crashed near Christmas Island). I thought I might elaborate on a few points made.
Sure organisations like GetUp! have done a great job rousing our moral outrage about both these issues, but what does it say about us when 40,000 people sign a petition to end mandatory detention, but 233,000 sign one to ban live exports of cattle?
I'll tell you what it says: we're a pissant country.
Okay, so the crux of De Brito post seems aimed at those who wish to absolve through signing a petition or copy & pasting a pre-composed letter (often provided by Animals Australia or the RSPCA) while they tuck into their factory-reared, antibiotic tainted roasted pig carcass (complete with teeth-bending roasted skin & lard - otherwise known as pork crackle) while laughing across the dinner table about a work colleague who told their "Whingin' Pommy" workmate to "love it or leave it", which is fair enough (I'll get to this a bit later). Yet it seems that De Brito feels a certain disdain for those who are far more passionate for the sake of animal rights than the rights of humans:
But what are we getting up in arms about?
Cows
The blog post in question can be read here: http://blogs.theage.com.au/executive-style/allmenareliars/2011/06/10/weareapissan.html
In another separate post De Brito also states, in no uncertain terms, that such people and their feelings "worry him" (I will post a link to the post as soon as I can recall its subject matter).
Why is this so, Mr. De Brito? Are you concerned that people, such as yours truly, are going to force-feed you broccoli and bok-choy for breakfast, lunch and dinner, seven days a week? Well, in short, perhaps I ought to. You admitted to your readership on several occasions recently that you, and those around you, have noticed how "doughy" you have become of late. Think that severely rehydrated, overly processed "ham" and product of the menstrual cycle (egg) roll couldn't bite you back? It is. It's biting you back by piling on the kilos while leaving fatty deposits behind in your already clogged, forty-year-old arteries, but you'll probably blame it on the beer.
Not every vegan/animal rights advocate is a hysterical, sociopathic, pasty-skinned, whatever stereotypical images conjured up by a mind that is making a feeble attempt at washing its hands of any guilt for enjoying that "throiii poiiice foiiid from K-F-Coiii'. Oh, and hold on, who the flying fox are you to suggest that a person cannot advocate for two, or more, causes? That is just a bit arrogant, don't you think? Moreover, while you are doing a good job, Mr. De Brito, of trying to mould your readership into a better way of thinking, but have you so much as critiqued your own?
I would think not, for you are probably unawares of the fact that heart disease and impotence go hand in hand. This is something that ought to be brought to the attention of your readers Mr. De Brito, for is the subject of your blog all about men’s' issues - getting their hands out of their jocks in lieu of a living, breathing sexual partner? Either way, it's not much good when you can't get it up because a whopper just wasn't enough - it would have to be an Ultimate Double Whopper. Nope, all that's left is an Ultimately Supple-Flopper - minus the cheese.
Penis jokes aside, the reason as to why I protest for better animal rights & welfare is simple; animals do not share our means of communication - hence they cannot protest OUR means of torturing/exploiting them solely for OUR benefit. (Pardon the caps, not shouting, just emphasising). Just imagine for a moment sharing a pint with a a battery hen survivor. Would the chicken not have the attention of the entire room with its story of miraculously surviving the horrors of the battery farm, assuming that it could speak English in articulate and eloquent fashion? But instead, because it cannot communicate in the same manner as its human overlords (nor could its blood level sustain an alcohol reading of more than .00000003, I would hazard a guess), it shares the same digestive acids as that pint of Tooheys Extra Dry-Retch, which, from its viewpoint (and certainly mine) would perhaps represent the highlight of its existence.
In conclusion, Mr. De Brito, when you think about how devastated you have been over the separation between yourself, your wife and your child, just think that it is not so farfetched to suggest that caged animals go through a similar experience?
Hear hear, well said indeed.
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