FRIEND OR HUMAN PURPOSE 

These days eating meat has become part of our culture and our diet. We put no thought in eating meat because we think that we need that protein for our health and to build muscle. As humans though, I think we should take a step further and think about why in society we are raised with the belief that animals are on earth to serve a practical human purpose. If talking about the US where Christianity is the most popular religion, the truth for many can be found in biblical scripture.

This picture that I found on blog.farmusa.org shows a cat and a pig gazing into each other’s eyes, almost kissing (“World day against speciesism”, June 5 2013). The author Maggie decided to add three questions “Which do you pet?” “Which do you eat?” “WHY?”. By adding these questions the author already assumes what the reader’s answers are going to be but the purpose of them is to awaken people, making them aware that this is not right. So, in this way the author is challenging those common beliefs of society which are to discriminate against certain animals (pigs) while taking care of others (cats). Lastly, the image captures clearly the understanding of animal equality and takes a step further making the reader rethink about why we do not think twice about eating meat and having a cat or a dog as a pet. In fact, some of us own pets which we love; sometimes even more then many humans in our lives. Not only are they considered friends but often they become important members of our family. Perhaps for this reason the cats, dogs, birds, and rabbits that live in our homes are not referred to as animals but are referred to as pets.There is an easy difference in the definition between animals and pets: our pets share our lives and we take care of them. That said, can there actually be a distinction from pets and farm animals? Furthermore, when talking about animal rights, are we considering both categories? While our pets are raised to be loved, most of the farm animals are raised to be eaten.

As the little boy, Luiz Antonio said in the YouTube video, “Those Animals are for us to take care, not to eat!” (“Luiz Antonio - A argumentação para não comer polvo”). These words are coming from a boy who is only four years old and does not even know nor has he seen in his few years on this planet how the animals are treated, kept and used by the humans for experiments. The only thing he knows is what his mom told him, that these animals are killed to be eaten by us, and just by knowing this the little Antonio does not want to eat animals anymore because he would like them “to stay standing”. The shocking part of the video is to see such a young boy thinking so critically about this subject. It definitely made a huge impact on social media and has had millions of views, capturing its audience with a big emotional appeal.

There are some people though that are vegetarian and they are all connected by one main idea; all of them see no reason to kill a living being just so they can eat when there are so many other food options available. But along with this main factor, there are so many other reasons why people choose a vegetarian or even a vegan lifestyle. In fact it is not only about farm animals, there is also to keep in mind fur, wool, leather and silk. All of these are materials that are created with animal abuse and mutilation (“Friend, Foe, or Frock: Animal Rights in Fashion”). Furthermore, there are a lot of animals that are instead used for research; these experiments include “dogs, cats, ferrets, rabbits, pigs, sheep, monkeys, chimpanzees, and more” (“Harm and suffering”) along with the most common, mice, rats and birds. Lastly, there is an environmental reason too. For example, to keep the leather in better shape it “requires massive amounts of energy and dangerous chemicals”(“Environmental Hazards of Leather”) and instead “it takes 1,799 gallons of water to produce a single pound of grain-fed beef”(“Big beef’s in big trouble”).

So, if people really did their research about animal cruelty, they would realize what goes on behind the manufacturing of that expensive leather jacket or producing a nice and juicy piece of steak. This is what happened to little Antonio in the video and this is why it is a good example of children’s compassion for animals and how a little knowledge can influence anyone’s eating habits and possibly their lifestyle.

Francesca Maggi