Animal Liberation Exhibit
In his recent editorial, Omar Yacoubi makes a case for prioritizing humans over non-human animals. The writer cites my victory as ‘Sexiest Vegetarian Alive’ as a better way to reach people than PETA’s recent exhibit. As the winner from that contest, I am proud to use it as a means to educate others about how eating feces-laden meat and pus-filled dairy products is far from attractive or healthy! Nevertheless, I recognize that not everyone pays attention to the same educational methods so I stand by their genuine effort to make the world a better place. I ask readers to look beyond the natural emotional reaction and move towards a proactive stance on how we can examine history and learn to prevent any atrocities for any victimized group.
I urge everyone to consider the perspective from “Dominion” in which writer Matthew Scully proposes that, “justice is not a finite commodity, nor are kindess and love. Where we find wrongs done to animals, it is no excuse to say that more important wrongs are done to human beings. A wrong is a wrong, and often the little ones, when they are shrugged off as nothing, spread and do the gravest harm to ourselves and others.” When we draw a line of separation and reinforce a system of domination between humans and non-humans, we overlook the real implications of our actions.
Our society should not set up a scale of rating what victimization is ‘more wrong’ for that leads to quite a dangerous line of thinking. We are, in fact, all animals- equal in our capacity to suffer when beaten and mourn when torn from family. While humans and non-humans have certain differences, we also share many similar traits that should grant animals moral consideration in our social paradigm.
-Micah Risk
