The media would like to portray animal justice as a “vegans against farmers” debate. But to do so grossly misrepresents the most serious social justice issue of our day.
If there is any hope for a progressive evolution of humans, surely it must lie in our fairness towards each other, even though those “others” are not like us by virtue of having a different religion or sexual orientation or gender or fail to fall into one of the categories of gender that we understand; though their skin is a different colour; though they are members of a different species.
The future of this planet that we all need for our survival (humans and non-humans) depends absolutely on a reversal of the speciesist thinking that allows us to breed and use other lives.
There is a concerted effort being made by animal exploiting industries, their representatives, and their allys in the media, to present animal use as benign and beneficial, and those who work to eradicate injustice towards them as violent. Name calling (on either side) attacks the person and fails to address the very serious problem of our systemic use of other lives. It might make for sensationalist media coverage but we fail in our moral responsibility if we do not focus on the real victims and what we owe them.
Sandra Higgins of Go Vegan World was interviewed on 96FM alongside farmer, Peter Hynes. You can listen to the interview here.
