Veda Stram
Presentation at 2008 Let Live Conference
Consider the lack of moral accountability for individuals abusing animals and the public support and defense of institutionalized cruelty.
Institutionalized cruelty includes practices, procedures and traditions
impacting millions of animals at any give point in time. These practices,
procedures and traditions are legal. They are embedded in the policies and
daily activities of governments, educational and religious institutions, in
private and public industries and are condoned or tolerated or even welcomed
by most people.
And they are driven by personal preference and by profit. No individuals are
held either morally or legally responsible for abusing animals.
On the other hand, individual animal abuse refers to some one person abusing
an animal or animals in ways that may or may not be legal but do offend most
people when exposed.
The individual animal aubser IS held morally responsible for the abuse.
In the past several years there has been a growing intolerance for
individual animal abuse. More letters to the editor, more animal law
degrees, more classroom curricula, more media coverage, more legislation,
more litigation have occurred in the past several years than ever before to
expose and prosecute individual animal abuse events.
And during this same few years, institutionalized cruelty has continued to
function and to grow with no demand for moral or legal accountability as the
numbers of animal victims has increased exponentially.
Consider the lack of moral accountability for individuals abusing animals
and the public support and defense of institutionalized cruelty.
What animal abuse are you responsible for? What animal abuse are you
accountable for? What actions do you take in your life, minute by minute, to
actually make a difference and save animals?
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