I have to give Ingrid Newkirk (founder/field general of PETA) some credit. I’m not sure that I care about any one thing THAT much. I just finished watching the HBO documentary “I am an Animal: The Story of Ingrid Newkirk and PETA”. It was an interesting watch I have to say.  But it really makes me question my dedication to things that I want to do. This woman, for I don’t know how many years, is used to being carried out to jail by police, splashing herself with fake blood, recruiting fellow animal commandos & staging good sized demonstrations all over the world. Meanwhile, here I am sitting in my living room unhappy with the fact that tonight is trash night & I might actually have to peel my ass off this seat & put the trash out. Where did I go wrong? (And on that note, what was my wife thinking?).

 

I remember back when I was a teenager I participated in a walk against lab animals. There was a lab (that I don’t recall at all) testing monkeys or something.  I ended up going entirely through the company that I worked for at the time to raise money. To this day I remember the responses of 3 people. One girl told me “I’ll give you money, but I still don’t care what animals get killed. As long as I can have my fur coats”. Another guy told me “I like you Jeff, but I’m not giving money. I think we should test every animal in any way if it betters our life as humans”. I liked both responses, but my favorite for sure was this Latin kid I worked in the warehouse with. This guy got in trouble a lot because he had a terrible case of Dyslexia. I don’t like to discriminate, but I did take issue with a warehouse guy pulling product, not being able to nail down the numbers accurately. I can’t tell you how many times I got a call like “Jeff.. we have an angry contractor on a jobsite! He was waiting for 19 – 6423’s and he received 6432’s. What happened”? There was always a quick silence, and every guy near the intercom would slowly look over at the guy inquisitively. Then he would slink over to the intercom and quietly say “sorry”. Anyway, the day I approached him for support on my walk gave me a laugh. Most reading this may not be parents, and not know Dora the Explorer. But the guy kind of sounded like Senor’ Toucan in that show for reference sake. When I asked him, he replied “I don’t theenk I will help. Animals… they do not have souls, Jesus,…he says zis”.  I’m not bad with the bible, but I don’t remember Jesus saying zat. I could be wrong.

 

Like a lot of things, I’m medium on this subject. I don’t believe in being cruel to animals, but I’d be a hypocrite if I said I was into total animal rights. I really like chicken & steak. I’m like the fur girl in that way I guess. I also consider the circle of life. I loved the Planet Earth documentary, and the thing you see a lot of is one species eating another all the time, everywhere. Maybe we’re just one of the upper links on the food chain. I’d say we’re at the top, but I know none of us would fair too well against gators, sharks, lions & tigers. (Sidebar: Am I the only one that laughed after one of the Siegfried/Roy guys were carried out in a lion’s mouth? You wonder if the other lions were thinking “Finally.. we got a hold of one of those pricks”).  I guess I’m not really a proponent of extreme- anything, I think having a balance in everything is the best way to live. I think of this regularly whilst I’m driving and balancing McNuggets on my lap.

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