Why Bother?
With so many animals being harmed killed for food, and with so many people consuming animals and animal products, it can seem hopeless and pointless to even try to do anything. So, why bother? Read on...
Why bother? It's a fair question, and I have a simple answer. It starts with a story you may have heard before...
An old man had a habit of early morning walks on the beach. One day, after a storm, he saw a human figure in the distance moving like a dancer. As he came closer he saw that it was a young woman and she was not dancing but was reaching down to the sand, picking up a starfish and very gently throwing them into the ocean.
"Young lady," he asked, "Why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?"
"The sun is up, and the tide is going out, and if I do not throw them in they will die."
"But young lady, do you not realise that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it? You cannot possibly make a difference."
The young woman listened politely, paused and then bent down, picked up another starfish and threw it into the sea, past the breaking waves, saying: "It made a difference for that one."
The old man looked at the young woman inquisitively and thought about what she had done. Inspired, he joined her in throwing starfish back into the sea. Soon others joined, and all the starfish were saved. [source]
"It made a difference for that one."
In Kathryn Gillespie's book, The Cow With Ear Tag #1389, I also discovered a compelling passage from David Wolfson:
"Approximately twenty million chickens and some ninety thousand cows and calves are slaughtered every twenty-four hours in the United States...When discussing the treatment of such a large number of animals, it is hard not to write either in a droning monotone or somewhat sensationally....[But] it is not simply more than [nine] billion animals a year, [ ] it is one, and one, and one, amounting to the large scale mistreatment of individual animals." [emphasis added]. [source]
Just like all those starfish, it is simply "one, and one, and one..." That is why to bother—for each and every individual animal.
And though, perhaps, you may only make a difference for one single animal, as the young woman said:
"It made a difference for that one."
Mahalo for reading. Aloha...