Which Side Will You Be On?

There are many people out there who think the idea of fighting for animal rights is completely insane. They believe that animals don't matter. They believe that humans are "better" than nonhuman animals and that this gives people the right to do whatever they want to animals. What they never seem to realize is that this same argument has been made in countless different situation throughout human history. Another thing they don't realize is that the people who make this argument always lose in the end.

Animal rights activists aren't trying to do anything different from what other activists have been doing for...... well, forever. We are just trying to expand what they have already done. As long as humans have walked the earth, there has always been one group that believes it is better than another group. "Your skin is a different color than ours and that makes us better than you" "You are of a different sex than we are and that makes us better than you" "You practice a different religion than we do and that makes us better than you" etc etc etc. What I find even harder to understand than this need to be "better" than someone else is the idea that being better gives you the right to abuse them. "We are better than you and that means we can own you." "We are better than you and that means we can force you to do whatever we want." "We are better than you and that means we can kill you for no reason."

The good news is that, at this point, most people understand that this kind of thinking is wrong. Thanks to all of the activists of the past, we have been able to (mostly) do away with the worst examples of this kind of behavior in regards to other humans. The bad news is that nonhuman animals are getting more extreme abuse than any humans have ever faced at any time in history. There have been incidents that were comparable to the way animals are treated today, but never for such an extended period of time or on such an incredibly huge scale.

So if you think of yourself as an open-minded, caring, logical person it should not be hard for you to see that  the animal rights activists of today are no different than any human rights activists of the past, and that certain animal rights groups are much more the new Underground Railroad than they are terrorists. Yes, it may seem like we are asking a lot of you. It may seem unreasonable for us to ask you to compare yourself to someone of a different species. But remember, there was a time not so long ago when it would have seemed just as unreasonable to ask you to compare yourself to someone of a different skin color.

I have no doubt that there will come a day when animals will no longer be exploited and abused for the (perceived) benefit of humans. The question is, how long will they have to suffer before that day comes? How many generations of nonhuman animals will have to live in misery before we realize that they shouldn't have to? The answer to these questions depends on how many people decide to stand up for them now. So ask yourself this; the next time they write the history books, which side will you be on?