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Not too long ago, women were denied formal education and the right to vote. They couldn’t own property, and they were considered property that could be thrown out of their husbands’ homes if they didn’t meet expectations. The idea that women were inferior to men was generally accepted by society, and they were admonished to be submissive and obedient.
Women were denied basic freedoms. They lived in a male-dominated culture in which men had all the power, took advantage of it and saw it as a matter of course or God-given privilege. The same attitude today robs animals of basic rights to exist without being exploited by humans. For example, cows used for milk are routinely impregnated in order to increase milk production. Terrified calves are taken away from their distraught mothers hours after they are born to be sold for veal or raised for their milk. Anyone who has ever seen a cow and her calf separated from each other knows that both are devastated; they bellow and call out to each other for days. Grieving mothers’ milk ends up being used with breakfast cereal, and their babies wind up as veal on dinner plates or back on the milk-production line. Every glass of milk and slice of cheese support this system, as though a cow’s suffering were of no concern.
Animals used for entertainment are beaten and electro-shocked in order to force them to perform tricks that are, to them, pointless, confusing, uncomfortable and frightening. They are kept in cramped, barren cages or circus boxcars or are tethered outside, where they lose their minds from frustration, loneliness and a lack of stimulation. We know that animals such as bears have rich, complex emotions and thoughts that we are only beginning to understand, yet humans take advantage of our power over them for the sake of pleasure and profit.
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