Time for a long rant. Heartfelt thanks to anybody who actually reads it. I wish people would not see the issue of animal cruelty in developing nations (particularly China) as a justification for their bigotry concerning said nations. I see people advocating genocide (!) as a response to animal abuse without any self-awareness as to just how sick and ignorant their statements are. My suspicion is that these comments do not come from a place of genuine concern for the welfare of the animals, but rather from deep-seated hatred and existing racial prejudice that they have merely been given an excuse to voice in public. When I lived in China, I witnessed extremely traumatic instances of animal cruelty and yet acknowledge this is not representative of an entire nation of 1.4 billion people. China has a huge geographical area, a massive population and a large income gap, as well as a complicated history in which access to educational resources on a variety of subjects (including animal rights) has been withheld from the general public. It is also a country struggling to keep up with its rapid upheaval according to the economic climate of the 21st century, and this has caused a variety of issues never before encountered. Just as we are products of Western ideology, as are the Chinese products of their own - and accordingly, it shows little comprehension of the circumstances to project the standards of a rich, developed society onto a completely different one. Something you may not be aware of - because the Western media is more interested in fostering an angry mob mentality than sharing factual information - is that the Chinese animal rights movement is one of the fastest-growing in the world. In a matter of years, the Chinese have had to learn what Western society took centuries to come to terms with. In the next few years, China will finally be adopting its first animal rights legislation thanks to the efforts of grass-roots organisations. Many of these groups are completely unbacked by the West and are never recognised by the rest of the world for their heroism; the media focuses on Western animal rights groups but not on the local ones, who arguably do more for animals in China. And under a government willing to execute people for activism, people literally risk their lives for the wellbeing of animals. I dont believe that is something of which any armchair activist has personal experience, so unless they are at risk of being systematically murdered for posting PETA petitions on Facebook they should keep their vitriolic assessments of other races to themselves. Animals will continue to suffer for as long as people separate themselves from the places in which cruelty happens, rather than supporting local activists and trying to understand the cultural, economic and sociopolitical roots of these problems. If you truly care about animals, you will educate yourselves and stop this proliferation of ignorance and misdirected anger.
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 22:29:30 +0000
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