Sleeping with the Enemy

Riddle me this, Batman: Who thinks is a great idea for industries that exploit and abuse animals to hold fundraisers to help the animals who have been abused?

Here are several recent, real examples:

• A rodeo just north of here held a fundraiser to raise money for the Busch Wildlife Sanctuary.
• A polo match will be held next weekend to raise money for greyhounds and abused horses.

This is like the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NABLA, and I refuse to provide the link) holding a black-tie event to benefit childhood victims of sexual abuse.

Hello (hello) . . . is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me . . . . Is there anyone home?

If you really want to help horses, you shouldn’t go to polo matches. If you really want to help greyhounds, you shouldn’t go to the race track (which by the way frequently gives funds to adoption groups, and some of that money is legislated). And if you really want to prevent the suffering of the cows, don’t praise Temple Grandin for creating a more "humane slaugherhouse." Instead, shut the slaughterhouse down by decreasing demand and becoming a vegan.

Don’t fall for the PR of the enemy. And if you’re ever unsure if you’re being played, ask yourself: Who is on my side right now? Am I at the same table (literally or not) as the people who exploit and abuse? Are we all claiming to be working together for the common goal of helping the animals? If so, what does that make everyone sitting at that table? I wish I could say Animal People, but I can only say friends of the enemy.

There’s an awful lot that we Americans do that adds cognitive dissonance to our already confused, and way underdeveloped minds. Simplify, simplify, simplify. Clear out the rationalizations and the attachment to whatever you ate and did for entertainment or "sport" in your childhood. Become the person you could have been, as George Eliot wrote. It’s never too late.