Naty

As the world is gripped by swine flu phobia, it occurs to me that in disease and suffering, we are all equal. And I don’t mean we are equal in the way that most people mean it: ‘we are all equal (and by ‘all’ I mean all humans who happen to look like me, share my beliefs, share my way of life, live in a similar area as me or at least in countries as developed as mine…)’.

I mean that it is at times like these, when the same disease strikes humans and non human animals alike, that the fact that humans and non humans are equals comes to the fore. And predictably, it is at times like these that society does its best to entrench in all of us the unfounded belief that humans are somehow superior, better, different, smarter…

The fact is that a life is a life, full stop. To assert that one life is more worthy that another is utterly without merit. A sentient being, capable of joy, fear, pain, pleasure, suffering; how can that life be worth less than another? How can it be a commodity? Owned, sold, abused, killed – for another’s benefit? Why is a mother of one species less deserving of nurturing its young than a mother of another species? Why do we consider it acceptable to entertain one species at the expense and with the suffering of thousands of others?

Society has long used any number of excuses to justify its brutal stance towards non human animals. Today, when google is god and we are just a few clicks away from quasi-plausible justifications for just about everything, Shakespeare still encapsulates the irrefutable truth: if you prick us, do we not bleed?