Friday, 6 May 2011 The Disconnect of Ricky Gervais Today, I got this in an e-mail from the League Against Cruel Sports: Ricky Gervais, anti-bullfighting? Good man! However, something was bothering me. Bulls should not be used to fight for our entertainment ... tens of thousands of bulls are still being maimed, tortured and killed for entertainment each year Its crazy that our money has any part in sustaining this cruelty All this coming from the man who said: The roast dinner is the king of dinners. And the king of roast dinners is the Christmas dinner. Therell be organic, free-range roast turkey. There will be little cocktail sausages wrapped in bacon, theres no doubt about it. Roast potatoes. I will have one Brussels sprout, and eat it like a good boy. And peas. And really caramelised cooked parsnips and turnips so theyre like crisps and really thick … This duality stikes me as somewhat perverse. One moment he is asking me to help alleviate the suffering of tens of thousands of animals that are killed unnecessarily for entertainment, sport and pleasure and the next moment hes claiming that a good animal roast is the king of dinners. So its not OK to kill an animal for sporting entertainment but it is OK to kill an animal because you enjoy chomping down on its corpse? However, to be fair to the man he does recognise the disconnect. Sort of. He admits to a sqeamishness about animal flesh that means he is only comfortable eating food that doesnt have a close resemblance to the animal it once was. He makes exceptions for poultry and disguised meats (so, sausages wrapped in bacon?) that dont look as though they could jump up and gambol around his table. One gets the impression that vegetarianism has a serious allure for him, if only he could bring himself to give up on animal flesh. So why hasnt he? It seems as though, contrary to his insistence that it is wrong to kill animals for entertainment (and one presumes that extends to other pleasures, otherwise its a deeply arbitrary distinction), he doesnt have a problem with animals killed for the pleasure of eating them. What he does insist, apparently, is that the animals lived a good, free-range life and were killed humanely. Im sorry, Ricky, but there is nothing humane about animal exploitation. You cant breed, fatten and kill with kindness. Using animals for food necessitates devaluing them to commodities, to products. They are bought, traded, owned and sold with the profit of the vendor and the pleasure of the consumer in mind. It may be true that the animals dont know what their fate will be and can live a relatively good life in sunlit pastures (if happy meat propaganda is to be believed) but this isnt some humane idyl of happy animals and caring consumers, this is simply exploiting the fact that the animals are not aware of their coerced future to justify exploiting them in other ways. Its OK, because the animals are happy while they are alive, dont know theyre going to die and will be killed quickly? I presume this kindly sentiment doesnt extend to humans. I can only imagine the shock and outrage that would be caused if some farmer stated he was using humans as commodities, to be sold as slaves and killed for food. Would this be justified as long as the people in question didnt know of their fate and felt their living conditions were adequate for their needs? What if they were just too stupid or brainwashed to realise they were not free? Or maybe it would be OK if they just didnt care about being free, preferring to stay where they would be warm and well-fed? Whether you are comfortable with the idea of humans being compared to non-humans, the point remains that we dont grant our fellow humans basic rights and freedoms simply because they are intelligent or philosophical or able to express their preferences in a language we understand. We grant them rights, the most basic of which is not to be used as a thing or a commodity, because they are individuals who are aware of their world and able to form preferences (however basic) for what happens to them. They are someones and it doesnt matter if they are stupid, ignorant, unattractive or disliked. They are someones, not somethings and we (should) treat them as such. Surely, surely this extends to animals as well? Ricky, I hate bullfighting as well. I hate the idea of an animal being used as a mere thing for pleasure or entertainment. And that is why I am a vegan. It is not enough to require humane standards of care or to campaign vocally on a few instances of animal abuse that are rather divorced from our everyday lives. If you are serious about animal rights, please respect them and that means starting with the most basic right any sentient being can have - the right to be seen as a someone and not a something, an individual and not a tool, a free being and not a commodity. Please, Ricky. Go vegan. Posted by Azrayel and Avalanchian at 09:57
Posted on: Tue, 22 Apr 2014 05:39:10 +0000
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