There has been an increasing awareness for animal welfare over the past couple of years. Wearing mink is becoming out of fashion due to the way the cruelty in raising these animals in small cages for their fur. People are being jailed for mistreating young animals such as kittens or small dogs if caught by authorties. The bogus website, Bonsai Kittens, caused a worldwide retaliation to the purported treatment of kittens in Japan. The list goes on.
Animal welfare activists argue that animals should not be mistreated and they have as much right to live without threat or restrictions as most of us enjoy.
However, they only apply their principles to certain animals. They rarely protest against farmed fishes, where many fishes are kept in a small pond with little room for them to swim in. Noone will arrest a little boy that uses a piece of glass to burn ants alive using the rays from the sun. Killing mosquitos, flies or spiders through bug sprays or pest control measures are not seen as acts of cruelty but are strongly encouraged. The list goes on.
These creatures are all animals. They have a right to live just like all other animals. Why are we preferring some classes of animals over others in terms of how we treat them? Why is it okay to kill a bug by ripping its wings off and tearing its body parts bit or bit, but not okay to bash and kick a kitten?
Shouldn't we have the same standards for all animals?
Ironically, in our society, we are all being mistreated by others. Our lifestyle is restricted by a number of factors such as our background, wealth and personality. People are being treated differently and some are being treated really harshly. We think that humans enjoy rights and freedom but in effect, we are no better off than the animals we talked about. Some of us are like kittens, protected by society, and any harsh treatments on them will not be condoned. Others are like bugs, being neglected and hated by society, some of which are destroyed or killed with invalid justifications.
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" small country cannot contend with a great, that few cannot contend with many, that the weak cannot contend with the strong" --Mencius.
In this world, to become strong, you must do it at the expense of others. That is the principle of this world, it is always the charismatic leaders that get all the glory, but the insignificants that fight and die in the wars(physical or pychological)in this world.
Yet do we not all naturally incline to grasp power, as it allows us to get what we want? whether women, security or wealth, whoever has the greater power rules supreme, until another comes to overthrow it.
IT is the same in all organisations, those favoured will get the attention, those considered "useless" are often ignored. Thats if they are lucky.
Yes i do agreee wif your views that some things are percieved to have greater value than others
And yet what can be done? Sure overthrowing the current person in "power" of the group is easy but what happens then?
Do we replace that evil with a greater evil(ourselves)? Is that the answer?
Do we become indifferent to the situation and let others suffer?
Or do we talk to others, having some false hope they will change because we asked them nicely?
i actually prefer the 2nd choice, but it doesnt solve the problem
only God can
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