Hi everyone,
I don't often write politically or morally-motivated e-mails, and especially don't often (if ever) send them out in bulk. I respect people for the choices they make and respect their right to make those choices and am never really one to try to change people's minds or habits. But every now and again the activist in me wins out and I feel like a message is important enough to at least spread awareness on. I leave it to you to consider/evaluate/judge what you read or watch, although I still think it's important that people know about certain things.
Most of you probably know that last year I went vegetarian both as a way to get in better shape and because I had some moral qualms with eating meat - more importantly with how mainstream society goes about GETTING its meat. I'm not some psychopath PETA activist by any stretch of the imagination, but there is a lot to be said about common sense and common decency.
There are a lot of things that I strongly object to; the rise of radical Islam, the excess of corn in our diets, the lack of logical political activism in large societies, factory farming, and so on. I write this not to change anyone's mind, but again, to just increase awareness on something that really does mean a lot to me. So what is this all about, you ask?
The fur industry.
It's about to make headlines again (it happens about once every year or so) with PETA's new attacks on Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen for their fur-wearing habits. But like most of you probably would agree, things don't suddenly become important just because Fox News decides it's a slow news day. These are matters of human decency, if there is such a thing, or matters of humanity in and of itself, even, that have existed for centuries. Bad press, stupid activists and a general sense of indifference usually sweep these things under the rug until, as I mentioned, it's a slow news day, or until something big happens to keep it in the spotlight until something bigger happens to take its place (I know I used the word 'until' a lot in that sentence. Deal with it!)
I've spent more time than some would consider healthy, scouring Google for information on the fur industry. What have I found? It's really not as bad as some might make it out to be. Does this mean it's not bad? I'll let you decide. One should always keep in mind that for videos like the ones I'm about to show, there is a definite, biased, political purpose behind them. While the "good side" of the fur industry may be overlooked in such videos, you have to ask yourself "What good is a 'good side' when the 'bad side' is really this bad?"
PETA is famous for its shock publicity, and who can blame them? Shock publicity works at grabbing attention. Shock publicity sometimes means bad publicity, but some would argue that bad publicity is better than no publicity. At the expense of being labeled crackpots by 75% of the country, such shock advertising has the effect of at least snaring 25% of the remainder towards a cause that PETA believes in.
So I leave it to you to label PETA however you choose -- I know I'm not too fond of them or their tactics, myself. But factual video speaks for itself, regardless of underlying circumstance or political motivation.
Some decide to argue: "Well sure, they're showing you all of these terrible things... but they're not showing you all of the other stuff. It's propaganda; politically motivated."
When you watch a video of an American contractor being beheaded on Al-Jazeera, you are not being shown the decades of Palestinian/Islamic oppression. You are not being given the story behind the Israeli struggle with its neighbors, or the United States' involvement in the middle-east. All you are watching is a man having his head sawed off by a blunt blade, and spending 30+ seconds breathing through a halfway-opened neck. This speaks for itself in its savagery.
To that same degree, while I feel compassion for all creatures, I find it very difficult to reconcile the difference between clubbing and slowly skinning an animal alive, completely capable of feeling and expressing pain and terror, and the slow torture and beheading of Americans by the followers of radical Islam.
These humans and animals aren't crickets, whose nervous systems are governed by subtle, and largely instinctive reflex responses. These aren't amoebas, whose "desire" to stay alive stems from a vague chemical fingerprint that differentiates between bad and good chemicals. These are vertebrates, with complex central nervous systems. They are, with the exception of brain capacity, in every way shape and form on par with human beings.
I would not skin my dogs any sooner than I would skin one of my family or friends. There is nothing that sets a rabbit apart from a human being on this scale.
With that said, I'm going to link to two VERY upsetting videos which I have had the misfortune of watching over the last year or two. One represents the annual Harp Seal hunt in Canada. The other is more of a stock compilation of a fur farm in what I believe is Southeast Asia. Generally if you watch a video on the fur industry, it will include scenes from this second video. It's shocking and disturbing to say the very least.
I'm not sure how recent the scenes from the second video are, however you'd have to torture me and skin me alive to convince me that these are trends that no longer occur on a massive and nearly global scale.
The video of the Harp Seal hunt is as recent as 2006, and possibly 2007. These are things that happen every day. When I've shown people these videos, they usually stop watching them very quickly. Unseen and unheard, I don't think they have the impact that they should. We seem to often find ourselves in the position to choose to ignore such things -- whether it's about something like the fur industry, or something more important. If we ignore it or don't read about it, it's not our problem. I tend to disagree, though.
So... I'm going to link to these videos and leave it to your best judgment whether to watch them or not. They are incredibly graphic, incredibly disturbing, and they contain pictures and imagery that just may stay with you for the rest of your life. I think they are very important videos, because they match images to the hype, slogans and other propaganda. If it were up to me, every humane person with some semblance of a conscience would watch these videos. But I also understand that this is not a subject matter that most people ever associate (or want to associate) themselves with, and are truthfully not prepared to watch, so I very respectfully understand anyone's choice not to watch them, period. I simply hope that you do not fall into the pool of people who believe that by not watching something, it does not exist. The world doesn't just disappear when you close your eyes. Since you are all family and friends, I know that this isn't the case, and know that none of you are the kinds of pawns that I'm describing here. Anyways...
Do not watch them with children around. Do not share what happens in them with children. Watch them with a strong constitution and be open-minded. If 10 seconds from these videos is not enough to somehow impact what you think of the fur industry, then I think we may need to have words :)
Before I link them, I'll close with just a little bit more. I know there are bigger fish to fry in the world: Sudan, Iraq, Al Gore, etc. This is by no means the most important thing. But as a society if we only tackled the most important thing at any given time, nothing would ever get done, as we'd probably all be stuck, still trying to cure AIDS while children starve to death, wars are waged, and the rest of civilization crumbles. This happens to be something that holds personal value to me, as an animal lover and lover of life in general. And it's something that I think I can at least make some sort of impact on. Asking people to stop wearing fur is a lot easier than asking them to change what they eat, stop eating meat, petition factory farms, starve themselves, etc. This is something that I feel everyone can easily embrace, so I've chosen to write about it. Lastly, please don't make the mistake of thinking that I'm just on some bandwagon for cute and furry creatures. I think every animal deserves respect and compassion, whether they're sitting next to you reading this, bred for food, or swimming in the wrong place at the wrong time when a boat propeller hits them.
If you're still reading ... I'm impressed!
So here are the videos, courtesy of PETA. Pay no attention to the other PETA fluff that's on the sites, if there is any... this just happens to be where I could find the videos online. I'm happy to discuss stuff like this, so feel free to write back with thoughts, criticisms, opt-outs, and so on.
http://getactive.peta.org
- Very graphic, very upsetting. Rated M for Mature
http://www.hsus.org/protect
- Very graphic, but among the more mild of the Seal Hunt videos. More of a documentary, but still upsetting.
- Elliot
Disclaimer: Any spelling or grammatical mistakes were made intentionally to keep the readers on their toes.
Disclaimer 2: Unless you want to reply to everyone that I've sent this to, click "Reply" instead of "Reply to All" :)
Disclaimer 3: I've spent too much time writing these disclaimers and refuse to write any more.
Disclaimer 4: Except for this one.
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