Animals for Entertainment

Animals have long been utilized by humans for a variety of purposes throughout history, some of which was purported necessity, and other situations of using animals were downright exploitation. As time has progressed, our "necessity" in using animals in almost every case has diminished yet we continue to use them without any regard. What am I talking about you ask? 

An example of purported use of animals would be utilizing horses for transportation. Back in time before vehicles and public transit existed, horses were used as a means of transportation through pulling carriages, transporting goods, or making our way from point A to point B. This was seen at the time as one of the few ways we could transport ourselves or our goods without having to do so by foot. As time progressed, vehicles and public transport have become readily available in almost every place in the world (with some exceptions of course) making utilizing horses for transportation a novelty means of transportation. Today, you can find horse drawn carriages pulling people through busy streets full of vehicular pollution and often times think nothing of it. This utilization of horses has now become downright exploitation.

Another example would be dog sledding. Long before snow mobiles and other forms of transportation built to handle that style of terrain came to be, dog sleds were seen as an acceptable means of transportation however now, dog sledding is an activity that people engage in for fun which has now become exploitation. I'm not sure if you follow me but what I'm trying to say is that there is absolutely no need for our continued use of animals for our own ambitions and yet we continue to exploit them with absolutely no regard for their well being.

This now brings me to situations where there was never a purported use for the animals, simply a desire to exploit them for entertainment. When you look at bullfighting, rodeos, dog or cock fighting, horse racing, circus', etc., these are entertainment usages that do not have any regard for animals' well being, rather a means to profit off of animals. There has never been a benefit to our existence as a civilization for these activities aside from entertainment and this is why activists are disdained over their continued allowance.

As I said, we are now in a time in our existence where we simply have no need for using animals for entertainment. We have a plethora of technology at our fingertips that allows us to do whatever we want without ever having to step foot in a circus or a horse race and yet we continue to do so.  Even when it comes to horse carriages or dog sledding, these things are outdated and we now know that they are unnecessary so they too, are exploitation of animals for our entertainment. 

As we continue to grow as a society, more and more people are turning away from sports or activities that use animals for entertainment because morally, they recognize it is not acceptable. Just because a horse CAN pull a carriage, why are we forcing it to do so for 8 hours a day? Just because you can train a wild tiger to jump through a hoop of fire, why in the hell are we forcing them to do so? It's this continued ideology that animals are here for us to use as we please that is pushing them to extinction. Tigers, giraffes, leopards, rhinos, elephants, these animals face mortal danger because humanity has deemed them ours for the taking and unless we shift our mentality completely and work towards true conservation, there is a very good chance we will see the end of some of these wonderful animals.

We must stop hiding behind the guise of tradition when it comes to using animals for entertainment. Rodeos, bullfighting, and horse carriages for example are steeped in tradition but does that mean we cannot identify that they are not OK and cease with these activities? Someone participating in a bullfight or those who are watching as a bull is repeatedly impaled and bleeds profusely, angrily looking for a means to escape can't honestly deny that there is something fundamentally wrong with what we are doing to this animal. When you see images of a horse that has collapsed in the streets from exhaustion, can we still continue to turn a blind eye to their struggles?

We need to identify as a global community that we have to do better for animals. We cannot continue to fund these entertainment based abuses of animals. We cannot continue to support any kind of exploitation of animals. Times are changing and we are seeing albeit slowly, animal entertainment being phased out. Circus' for example are being banned in many places across the globe because they are recognized as being unnecessary and cruel to animals. Places like Sea World are seeing a rapid decline in their attendance thanks to regular protests from activists tired of seeing intelligent marine animals forced to do tricks, living their lives in bathtubs.

My point to all of this is simple, we must continue to speak out against any form of exploitation to animals. There is no place in our society any longer for animals entertaining us. There is no place in our society for animals being forced to fight, race, or perform tricks at their own expense simply to entertain us. This movement towards a cruelty free future is real and it's working so we must all continue to do our parts. Spread the message of compassion, share the positive news stories for animals and speak out against the wrongdoings of humanity. It is up to us to see the end of animal exploitation and I believe we can do it!! :)

HAPPY VEG