ONLY HUMANS ARE ANIMALS

Article by Barbara Cornell.

Syndicated from Barbara Cornell’s personal blog.

Every discussion about the latest human-perpetrated tragedy will include at least one example of the following: “Animals aren’t violent. Only humans kill. Humans are worse than animals.” Are funny cat pictures on Facebook the only interaction people have with animals anymore? Have none of these people at least seen a National Geographic presentation on the TV? I’ve personally witnessed a flock of chickens (all hail Fat George Foreman, Really Fat George Foreman and Ridiculously Fat George Foreman, late of my backyard. Hu-ah!) who had designed and perfected a flanking maneuver to allow them to systematically kill and eat every non-chicken housed with them (at least until I saw with my own eyes and caught them in the act of pecking to death a duck, which finally explained the beaks and feet I periodically found that were the only things left of birds I put to bed the previous night). They were so well fed, they couldn’t even fly, yet they killed. They killed for sport and for racial purity. (They were executed and eaten for their war crimes. Because it turns out the alpha in this herd lives in the Big House.) I’ve seen inter-species gang rape of male animals, the only purpose of which is to establish which of us is the alpha male, which of us are the toadies and which of us are the victims. I’ve seen animals too fat to fly, who’ve never gone a single day without food in their entire lives and have zero concept of scarcity, systematically (attempt to) starve to death smaller animals for no other reason than to establish dominance. I’ve seen weaker animals tortured (nearly) to death by stronger animals simply because they’re weak. (“Nearly” and “attempt” because, it turns out I’m the alpha in this herd.) You have pets? You aware that your Fluffy is responsible for the extinction of many, many, many bird and small mammal species, ya? These are the animals who are fed from a can opener to such an excessive degree that feline diabetes and obesity is nearly as epidemic as human obesity. Fluffy doesn’t wantz a cheezburger. Fluffy wants to kill. Fluffy likes to kill. So, dig it, the people pushing environmental policy and resource management policy are the same people who’ve never even driven by an animal on their way to the airport.

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ONLY HUMANS ARE ANIMALS