Giraffes vs.Cows

There is a lot of buzz around the internet about the recent shooting of a giraffe. I do not say innocent giraffe, because to be honest, it is a bit redundant. What would make a giraffe guilty? A young woman named Rebecca Francis posted a picture of herself lying next to a dead giraffe, which she allegedly killed after it was "old" and near death anyhow. A certain television personality--Ricky Gervais--has been rightly giving her hell about it, and I applaud his efforts.

The thing that gets to me, though, is the many comments of support he has received from admitted meat eaters. One such person wrote, and I am paraphrasing: I'm a hunter, but even I would never kill such a beautiful, exotic  creature.

http://www.listal.com/viewimage/6931291

Is this cow not beautiful? What about this deer? Is she not exotic enough? 

http://www.collectionofpicture.stockmd.net

I'm making a rhetorical point here, one that would probably be lost on the above mentioned hunter. I know this, because I have friends and family who hunt or who support hunters, just as I am family and friends who regularly consume factory-farmed animal  flesh.  I have gotten into many arguments with these people about the ridiculousness of their claims. I don't  hate them, though. I should, really, because why should we not hate murderers? But making comparisons between the death of an animal and a human is always frowned upon. People don't like it when you say that murdering a baby cow is exactly the same as murdering a human baby, so I won't start arguing that here, although I'm sure  my barely veiled remarks here have made it clear where I stand on the issue. But again, I don't hate them; I love them. But I can not lie to myself that they are some how less guilty than Rebecca Francis. I, myself,have consumed non-human animals in the past, and for that I am also just as guilty as Rebecca Francis. The fact that I realized my mistake and now aim to make up for my errors by fighting on behalf of non-human animals, while refusing to consume  anything that would make me a benefactor of their torture and death, does not make me innocent.

Ricky Gervais posted this picture of Rebecca Francis and the giraffe she murdered:

https://twitter.com/rickygervais/status/587544759704625152/photo/1

As Gervais asks: "What must've happened to you in your life to make you want to kill a beautiful animal & then lie next to it smiling?"

Horrifying, isn't it? I cried when I saw it.  I tell you this not because I want to make myself out to be a good person, but because it is the truth. Why shouldn't I cry? I cry equally when I hear about car bombings, or missing children, or a murdered business-man. Life matters, in every form.

Consider this: how many pictures do you have of your family sitting around the table a Christmas, Easter or Thanksgiving, with a murdered turkey carcass, or a roasted cow or pig part as your centre-piece... all of you, smiling?

I have a few of my own. Now, years later,  I look at these pictures and the beautiful memories I share with my family are haunted by those birds, cows and pigs. It breaks my heart, and it makes me wonder why it is that we are so quick to indict Ms. Francis, and yet so unwilling to admit our own guilt. We have created this artificial animal hierarchy, where pigs, and turkeys and deer and cows are placed leagues below giraffes and elephants and chimpanzees...and us. We make all these excuses for why some animals' lives mean more than others. We say that we shouldn't  kill dolphins because they are so smart, chimps because they are so much like us, giraffes because they are so beautiful, elephants because they are so exotic... 

But deer, we can eat them. They are food.  It's natural. Cows, we can eat them, they aren't very smart.  Chickens, they barely even struggle when you murder them. Pigs, they roll around in mud.

We are speciests of the worst kind because we not only think that we are better than non-human animals, but we think that some non-human animals are better than others based on arbitrary, and often entirely fictitious distinctions. 

I want justice for the giraffe that Rebecca Francis murdered, and I laud Ricky Gervais for not backing down in his indictment of her  horrific actions. But I also want justice for every single  other animal that people murder every  day because they are not beautiful, rare, intelligent, or exotic to matter. 

I don't know what else to say.

I would say happy Tuesday, like I normally do, but I'm not very happy.  

Last day of classes

So, yesterday I taught my final tutorial at McMaster. This past eight months I have spent an absurd amount of time wishing I wasn't here, and now that classes are ending, I'm wishing I never had to leave. Honestly, I know that this is crazy,but I also know that it's mostly because apart from writing my thesis, I have almost no plans for the future. Because I did not apply to PhDs, I can't relate to most of my friends who are completing their MAs today. When I finish my thesis, in mid august, I will be finished with school for at least a year. That is TERRIFYING. It has been so long since I didn't know exactly what I was doing in the coming year. I suppose I have to get a grown up job for a while. I suppose I have to live like other people do. Being in schools puts you in this weird state of mind. You are stressed all the time, but it is almost never about things that really matter. You are stressed about grades, you are stressed about not having a social life (or spending too much time in your social life and too little time worrying about your grades), and you stress about  the perception that you professors and colleagues have of you. But none of it matters.

What am I going to do?!

You know how earlier in the semester I said that I hated academia? Well, turns out I also hate real life, and now that I staring down the barrel of real life's gun, I am starting to think more seriously about my PhD. God, I'm changeable.

Another thing that made me think more seriously about further education is a series of amazing reviews I got  from my students on the last day of classes. One of my students straight up told me that she loved my teaching style and that she didn't even want to take this class, but after experiencing my classes, she never missed one! She told me that she never attended her other tutorials because the TAs presented the material in such a boring way.An email from another student says that my tutorial "was a great experience" and that he "truly looked forward to coming to class every week". Another student emailed to tell me that "this year has been amazing", while another came up to me after class to tell me that my advice to her last semester encouraged her to switch majors, and now she is doing much better in school than before. She had come to me after getting a failing grade on her paper from last semester,  and cried because she felt like Political Science was just not doing it for her any more. She is now a Peace Studies major and loving it!   If I can have this impact on students, and they really think I'm a good teacher, maybe I am on the right path.

I guess I have  some time to  figure it out, and given that I have two papers to finish by next week, and then my thesis to write throughout the summer, maybe I should stop thinking so much about my future and just focus on the now.

Happy rainy Wednesday!