Cecil the Lion...

Sometimes I just want to go on a punching spree and just lose it on  the world around me. I mean, yes, I always try to refrain from being the psycho vegan  weirdo who hate everyone, but  just now and then (especially when I'm feeling hormonal) something happens in the world that takes the internet by storm and causes me to question whether it is worth it for me to leave  the house any day.

Let me start by saying that I am obviously heartbroken by the death of Cecil the Lion - if you don't know about Cecil the Lion, check out this article or just do a quick Google search. Essentially, an American dentist went over to Africa and paid someone to let him kill a famous protected lion. Horrible, I know. There really is no way to justify this, and I am heartened to see that the majority of the internet is freaking out about it.

But if you remember my previous post about the giraffe killer who joyfully posed with her victim, outraging strangers across the globe, you will recall that to me, and many people like me, it makes absolutely no damn sense that we would be so disgusted with the murder of a lion, or an elephant, or a giraffe, and yet happily scarf down a double bacon cheeseburger on our lunch break, with a half litre carton of chocolate milk!There is so much research that tries to explain why we love  some animals and kill others... but none of it really gets to the heart of the issue for me...that it...our hearts. None of it really explains it for me. It all just seems like rationalization.

Why is it so difficult for us to see  the similarities between the destructiveness and cruelty in ourselves yet so  easy to see these very same traits in others?

I'm feeling very emotional today so I really have nothing else to say except to urge you to start thinking a bit more about the way that you treat the animals in your lives - and those that come across your plates - every time  you start to get a little rattled by some jerky hunter who travels to another continent to kill so-called "majestic", or "exotic" creatures.

-J