Our Grade 8 English Language and Literature class unit on advocacy speeches inspired us to write pieces about social issues that move us. It moves me that sometimes this doesn't move us: the rights of other animals. By Viktoriia Photo by Chuko Cribb on Unsplash Why do animal rights matter? What is the importance of the rules we shatter? The lives we destroy The pain we employ The medicine and cosmetics created By the weight of conscience weighted 110 Million deaths in a single country alone And many more injuries to atone For the animals Never given a voice Never presented with a choice Never allowed to escape the suffering Many innocent animals numbering Sentenced to death Unable to draw breath Trapped within the cogs of experiments Making the lives of humans less perilous Animals which share 98% of our genetic code Do not deserve conditions so cold The guinea pigs, hamsters, dogs and cats The non-human primates, the rabbits, the rats The animals which suffer from the same diseases as us Poked and prodded at with little fuss Yet the effect of this testing is small Stumbling against a concrete wall With modelling and cell cultures prevailing Clinical research Unfailing Making conditions for animals worse And worse, using brutality and force We ignore The necessities of sentient creatures With senseless and heartless procedures When the alternatives would cause less Pain Are ethically correct and bring economic Gain Photo by Bekky Bekks on Unsplash Animals who can feel Joy and emotion Ought to be treated With respect and devotion When laws and legislation fail to provide support When rules and regulations are unable to thwart The inhumane conditions facing birds, mice and rats Overlooked by government acts Organisations such as WWF and World Animal Protection Or Four Paws and Giraffe Conservation Foundation Powerless Against the surging wave of heartless Conditions Their thoughts and emotions disregarded How can we justify the brutal methods of exploitation The very basis of science, the human characterisation? How can we repeat the events of history? And continue the animals’ misery? When cattle and oxen were treated as labour With humans demonstrated as dictator And no force prevented human domination When laws were of humankind the creation And animals created solely for human benefit How can we still play the supremacist? When granting animals even the basic rights Would drastically reduce the plight We can do what's right And eliminate unnecessary torment and cruelty With harsher laws preventing the continuity Of caging, beating and senseless murder To profit someone else The system is ordered But out of order And while some might experience more Pain and sentiment and deplore it And may not support the same basic condition It is crucial to encourage the full abolition of some practices And impose New traditions Novel legislation Respect the true foundations Photo by Loren Biser on Unsplash Chickens, pigs, cows and hens Kept In deplorable pigsties, feedlots and pens Denied the basic right of liberty Kept From exercise and the outdoors In captivity Sufficient feeding given just To keep them alive Antibiotics added to boost their growth To let them survive Just that bit longer In unsanitary conditions where disease Leads many to decease Where living creatures are sold as lifeless flesh Like matter or tissue, incapable of distress Slaughtered in hundreds and thousands Yet no human conundrums We're safe in our houses All animals killed by methods of inhumane Torture Murder crossing the borders Slitting the throat, and bleeding to inevitable death While still conscious and experiencing a dread we are able to imagine We rely on ideas Of the animal’s insensibility And methods employed, Systematic The inability To see the tragic To decrease the pain felt by the innocent victims Within the vast Industrial farming systems 10 billion animals slaughtered in the U.S A number not visible in the news mainstream Farming with almost no regulation Take note of the crooked, twisted foundations Could be replaced by intercropping, Agroforestry, agro-ecology and cruelty-free farming To avoid the reliance on chemical antibiotics Large-scale murder and the technologies of robotics In the service of Increased animal wellbeing Employ AI to move from the artificial back To the natural So why, then, sustain industrial farming? It's alarming The data we hide Photo by Laura College on Unsplash We must alter
The brutal processes of murder And restore ourselves and animal rights to order. Any contribution can generate Vast improvement Give fuel to a new, positive movement Avoid products tested on animals Reduce the damages Support Organisations that aim to improve Conditions Violence dispel and disprove Small shifts can save Many Lives Abolish cruelty to save animals from the knives The time has arrived To create change From these cruel, heartless practices we must refrain Retrain our brains And our stomachs And other things Will follow
1 Comment
Terry
15/3/2024 20:41:09
Thank you, Viktoriia, for this powerful poem that demands that we interrogate our relationship with animals. I find it ironic to see how much people dote on their pets and then how little many care about what animals go through esp. in factory farms to become the food on their plate (for example). Thank you for this poem!
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