There I was talking about this zebra barcode art by Banksy. Scraping the surface of it just for presentation sake within that 10 minutes. Now after much research and findings, animal rights are something that everyone has double standards for and are hypocrites. Firstly, by accepting the doctrine of animal rights, it means that there can be no experimentations on animals, no breeding and killing animals for food or clothes of medicine, no use of animals for hard labour, no selective breeding for any reasons other than the benefits of the animal (ex. Near to extinction), no hunting and no zoos or use of animals for entertainment purpose.
How this art work impacted me was it made me think deeper into animal rights. Every now and then I will come across pictures or videos on Facebook postings about treating animals with love and care. Videos revealing how harsh animals are treated such as chickens, cows and many others. All this circulate the net and many people share it around. But what good does it do with raising this awareness? After all we still would love to have that nice juicy piece of KFC chicken or our favourite Char Siew Rice.
We as human beings, set double standards such as it is not right to treat your dog or cat in a cruel way but it is alright to dispose of baby chicks that does not reach a certain weight at birth. Why? Maybe it is because it has become socially acceptable to do that due to the fact that we need the meat for mass production to crave this ever growing need for food of humans. Yes, we do have the technology and knowledge on catching, killing, breeding and all sorts of skills regarding animals but is it consciously right to do so?
Pffft... dogs -.-
From what we can observe, not all animals have rights but some ‘higher’ animals have rights. This statement can be argued with the point that all animals are a subject of a life. They all deserve to live as well. As quoted from the Dalai Lama, ‘Life is as dear to a mute creature as it is to man. Just as one wants happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not die, so do other creatures’. We human beings too are animals. We must remember that this earth was made for all beings, not just human beings. If we were to look at ourselves as part of the animal kingdom, our treatment of animals will one day be considered barbarous. There cannot be a perfect civilization until man realizes that the rights of every living creature are as scared as his own.
If someone were to fight for animal rights, I feel that it is necessary for them to become a vegetarian. There are currently no other ways to no eat animal meat except for a recent advancement in creating biological animal meat in the lab. Other than that, if someone were to fight for animal rights and support them, they better do what they say. Don’t just talk the talk, but walk the walk.
To be honest, I don’t think I can commit myself to not eating meat for the rest of my life. It has been part of my diet since I was young and would be a hard challenge to overcome though I do not feel that it is impossible. The world is filled with vegetarians and if they can do it, so can everyone else. It would take a whole lot of effort and discipline to change this diet of mine but who knows one day you might meet me in a vegetarian restaurant. On an end note, I’ve tried Indian vegetarian food and to my surprise it tastes wonderful! Food cooked by grannies are the best :D