People Like Me

People like me. That was the answer I was given to my question of who would care if the Black Rhinoceros went extinct. People. Like. Me.

This thought makes my blood boil to the very point I fear my skin will simply start melting.

There is so much evil in this world. Such mass amounts of cruelty. And no, I will try not to make this another depressing blog about all the suffering of animals that goes on so freely and unchecked. After all, it's only people like me that care, right?

What I want to do is address the utterly, disgusting height of apathy that rules the world today. For instance, beginning on July 1st, thousands of baby sea lions are clubbed, stabbed and beaten to death all so Kim f*cking Kardashian can wear her ten thousand dollar fur coat and be on the front cover of Heat. Yay! But no one sees the bloodshed, only the fashion diva - and that's all that matters in this day and age.

Earlier this week in work when I had eventually worn my colleagues down into agreeing to start recycling, it was met with eye-rolling and jokes about Greenpeace. Someone asked if I believed in 'all this Global Warming rubbish' and when I tried to explain how the Arctic was literally melting away and the animals that live there will be lost, they shrugged and said that that was what zoos were for.

That's what zoos are for......

That's what zoos are for.......

Frustration. That's what keeps me up at night. That's what makes me want to punch walls and scream. Frustration at the lack of care and the total, complete bubble of ignorance that surrounds people.

Frustration quickly escalates into anger and I find myself hating everything and everyone. I hate those that poach rhinos for their horns, elephants for their tusks and tigers for their coats and bones. I hate that tens of millions of sharks are being hacked up alive, their fins sliced from their bodies for soup. I hate that dolphins and whales are slaughtered and kidnapped for humans to make money. I hate the abuse that cats and dogs receive from disturbed individuals. I hate that foxes and badgers are enduring such violent, barbaric deaths at the hands of men and the teeth of bull-lurchers. I hate that cows, pigs, sheep and chicken are harvested without even being acknowledged as sentient animals.

Oh, but that's human nature. That's what I'm told. It's just in the nature of humans to be out for themselves and as long as they are comfortable, with a tummy full of food, and a throne of power then to hell with the rest of the planet.

I just refuse to believe this. We have evolved to marvel at love, appreciate beauty and empathise with species so different from ourselves. How can a species so full of good, be so corrupt? Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Yes, yes it does.

Another statement that makes me want to break things - what can one person really do? What difference can they make? One person can be like a domino. Start the change, knock the domino over and it could start a chain reaction. If EVERYONE recycled could we save the Amazon? Could we save our trees, countryside and landscapes? HELL YES!! Of course we could. If EVERYONE did one small thing to address the cruelty of the transport and process of farm animals being slaughtered, would it raise ethical standards? YES! Yes, it would. Maybe people like me are in the minority. Perhaps our voices are too small and too easy to ignore that the message isn't making that much of a difference, but you better believe I won't let that stop me. I won't stop making noise when there is a fire raging inside of me and a chance that maybe I could be that first domino. Maybe I could do something that could make a difference.

Oh, and another thing that raises my hackles. I'm vegetarian. It's not a disease. It's not an allergy. It's a choice. I don't believe in the way animals are treated, transported and killed. I don't believe it is in any way ethical or humane. I choose to not eat meat or drink cow's milk because of the processes behind them. So when my choice is met with a condescending smile or remark, when I can see the eye-roll and joke about being a hippy, I want to punch you in the face. If you can, watch the undercover videos of the abuse that goes on in slaughterhouses and if you choose to ignore it or feel indifferent about it, then that is your choice. What pisses me off the most is the people who turn a blind eye and pretend it doesn't go on. Okay, maybe I might offend people by this and after all my parents are like that to an extent, just like probably 95% of the population. This is wrong. This is where the problem lies. You might like animals and not wish any harm to come to them, so why not try and make the difference yourself? Buying organic products is a start, but at the end of the day those animals have the same fate as those poor, innocent souls that are factory farmed. On average 80% of our meat in this country comes from animals that are factory farmed. That means that there is 80% chance your steak came from a cow that had never seen daylight, never felt real grass beneath her hooves. That means that there is 80% chance your pork chops came from pigs imprisoned in crates so small they never even had the chance to move in the months that they were kept alive.

I went out for a meal with my family and on the menu there was a dish with foie gras. I tried to explain how cruel it was and that they should avoid ordering it. And I know I can probably come across obtuse sometimes when I am in full rant mode, but I was purposely only trying to explain the facts so they could make their own minds up about what to order.

Of course, my brother deliberately orders it to wind me up. I know he couldn't have fully understood the process behind foie gras, but sitting across from him eating that, it was all I could do not to break down in tears. He did it to wind me up, like it was a joke to order it, to annoy me. These geese must endure so much suffering and so much pain all for the sake of a plate of patte. I felt sick. Sick to my stomach.

As much as I hate the human race sometimes, as much as I wish I could obliterate individuals with a wave of my hand, I will never give up that someday, someone could unite the planet to raise our ethics, especially when it comes to animal welfare. I don't think human nature is to protect number one, I think human nature shines through the most when we are laughing with friends, hugging our families, crying at funerals. We feel to levels that sometimes words cannot express. We have souls. This is why I cannot even comprehend the evil that goes on and, even more, the indifference to it.

Don't let 'people like me' be in the minority. You can make the difference just by caring, by being more aware of your actions. Investigate where your food comes from. Buy products that aren't tested on animals. Don't gamble on horses and dogs and support the abuse that comes to racehorses and greyhounds. You can care and save the Black Rhino from extinction. Together we can be the voice that banishes factory farms. Don't let apathy be this generation’s downfall. Don't let whole species be lost from the by product of indifference.

Just be human. Care.  

The Extinction of an Animal that has Thrived for Millions of Years for........Soup?

A brutalised, bloody body drifts to the dark depths of the ocean where it awaits an agonising death that may take days in the form of starvation, drowning or even eaten alive. A creature known for its power and its aptitude for survival slips into the darkness a pathetic, handicapped wreck, once driven by instinct and confidence, now only knows pain and suffering. This is the fate of tens of millions of sharks slaughtered for their fins for an Asian 'delicacy' known as shark fin soup. The practice of shark finning is typically performed by first hooking the shark through the jaw or eye, dragging them on land or boat, slicing the pectoral and dorsal fins and tail while the shark is alive and then tossing the poor animal back into the ocean where it can only sink to the seafloor and hope for a quick end.

Pause for a second. Now I know humans find it hard to sympathise with these supposed bloodthirsty, ferocious predators due to prejudice, horror stories of attacks on surfers and Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws' which depicts a murderous, evil fish hell-bent on eating everything and anything. Now rewind. These animals evolved 400 million years ago, a good 200 million years before the first forms of mammal arrived on the planet. They have evolved so well as apex predators and over time have well and truly established themselves as a main brick in the ecological house that is the ocean. Remove this keystone foundation and the whole ecosystem will fall. They feed on sick and dying fish maintaining healthy populations and in turn improve water quality. They do not attack humans intentionally and out of some violent rage, many encounters of sharks and humans are due to the former confusing swimmers with seals. Across the globe there are on average 12 attacks by sharks on humans a year, but you can guarantee all these incidences will be reported on and made into some horror story by the media, feeding the publics' distaste for this animal.

Ironically, it should be reported how many humans kill sharks - 3 sharks die a second at the hands of Homo sapiens - now that is a true horror story. 55% of all shark species are at serious risk of becoming extinct in the near future. As I mentioned before they are crucial to the way of life in marine ecosystems. Along the US east coast where large sharks such as the tiger shark and black tip shark have been virtually eliminated, surveys show that shellfish populations have dramatically declined and the overall quality of the water is exceptionally poor.

Fishermen have also acknowledged that sharks are getting smaller. This is due to excessive overhunting not allowing for sharks to mature. Decimated shark populations do not recover over night - many species do not sexually mature until 6 or 7 years of age and females typically give birth to only one or two pups annually. If some species are driven to near extinction before we stop this cruel practice, they may not be able to ever recover. And with some populations decreased by 90% this devastating fact may be true of some well known and much respected shark species. We must act NOW.

I watched a video about shark finning entitled, 'Sharks Don't Cry'. Well, I cried plenty for them. It's horrific. It's unnecessary evil. These animals must endure so much pain and so much anguish all for a bowl of tasteless soup that is usually made with chicken or vegetable stock to add a flavour. The fins are used only for texture.

Is it hypocritical to protest for a ban on shark finning when we slaughter so many animals such as cows, chicken and sheep? Even though I do not agree with the way farm animals are transported to slaughterhouses and methods used to kill them, they are far more humane than being finned alive and tossed back into the sea. Could you imagine the outcry if lambs and cows had their limbs cut off and left to bleed out in fields? This is exactly what is happening to sharks!! Sharks are not farmed animals, they are not bred for consumption - we are relying on natural populations to fuel the desire for shark fin soup. Also, with many species of shark endangered a ban needs to proceed to protect their survival for future generations. They banned the import and export of ivory to protect elephants and rhinoceros - we need this protection for sharks. I'm not naive - I know ivory is still sold through black markets, but even if fish fins continued to sell this way after a ban was put in place, there would still be a lot less sharks slaughtered than without it.

Many argue shark fin soup is part of Chinese culture. I'm sorry, but I just don't believe in those arguments. If tradition is so important why have others been banned such as foot binding? Surely if that argument had to stand, every tradition would still be upheld? And as a tradition, only the very wealthy consumed bowls of shark fin soup. Comparatively, a few million people could afford to eat the soup in the 1980s, but as China becomes richer, up to 300 million people now choose to eat it on a regular basis. Additionally, many who argure that it is a national tradition do not care about the conservation status of sharks - surely if it was such an important part of Chinese culture the protection of shark populations would be impertinent in order to sustain shark fin soup for generations to come?

Another weak argument for the justification of shark fin soup is that it is good for you. That must be why doctors strongly advise pregnant woman and children not to consume the soup due to the high contents of mercury found in sharks and other marine life. Also the fins are treated with hydrogen peroxide in order to produce a more appealing colour before added to the 'delicacy'. Mmm, sounds yummy!!

Much to my dismay, I discovered that a Chinese restaurant near where I live sells shark fin soup - Ho Wong restaurant found at 82 York Street, Glasgow. I know that many people are not aware of the practice of shark finning and my plan is to email the restaurant with some information about this and to ask if they would consider removing this dish from their menu. One voice may not be loud enough to portray the importance of this message and I would be so appreciative if others could do the same. Maybe together we can stop Glasgow from participating in the cruel slaughter of sharks. Please send a polite email on your opinions of shark fin soup to info@howong.co.uk

This is the video I mentioned previously Sharks Don't Cry and please, please if you have some spare time watch this documentary about sharks called SharkWater. Let's work together and put an end to shark finning.