August 8th, 2004 - Jon

You know how I usually talk about stuff in the news? Do you mind if I make an exception for this week? Because there's been something slipping through my brain for a long time now. I should just say, if you're a posh snob, a "hunt-for-sport" fool, or the kind of person who thinks animals are obselete, you should probably stop reading, as you're probably pro-fox hunting and are unable to see it from any other perspective than your own narrow-minded version. Now, I'm a keen poet, and one of my writing styles is putting human feelings into animal perspectives, using metaphors and symbolic images. I want to do the same here. As you read through this paragraph, I want you to put yourself into the position of a fox. A wild animal. You see what it sees. You're doing what you usually do - on the hunt for things to eat, as is the food chain. You're causing no harm to any human by rummaging through the bags they haven't properly got rid of. Soon after, you've eaten - like everything else in the world - and you go to sleep in your little rest spot. All is calm, until not so far away, you hear horns, and fast, heavy footsteps. You peer up to see what is going on. As you do so, you see hunters with guns, galloping horses and blood-thirsty dogs sprinting towards you. Panicking, you turn and run, your only hope of survival, but the dogs are hot on your tail. Dogs! Members of your own natural family! They're all after your very skin. Bullets skim past you, as the thunderous hooves of the giant horses comes ever closer. Soon you run out of room, and feel a sharp pain in your body. You've been shot. You're dying, and your skin is going to be draped around someones neck before long. Go on then; you'd like to be shot by a giant would you? President Kennedy was shot. John Lennon was shot. Millions more - shot every day needlessly. If you die with the sense of knowledge that you'll have your skin removed and wore by something ten times your size, it doesn't add up to a very pleasant end to life, does it? Animals have less brain power than us - fact. That does not mean they have none whatsoever. They can feed themselves, house themselves and care for themselves. Why must they have less rights because we can't be bothered to figure them out? Do you speak Icelandic? If not, does that mean the people from Iceland have less rights because you can't fathom out what they're saying? Of course not. Some people just need to have a good long think about what they're doing, why they're doing it, and how it benefits them in any way. They might find the actual answers that way, rather than the answers they want to hear. Agree or disagree? Get in touch. Thanks for reading.