Tuesday, February 27, 2007 . 2/27/2007
My aunt and uncle have been staying over since Friday, but they are gone now. They live far away, and they had a family picture thing to go to, so they stayed here until then.Anyway.. I was watching Animal Planet one night, Growing Up Gorilla. Normally I hate primates since they remind me so much of people, but when I saw that little helpless gorilla, my heart was stolen. There is this sanctuary for orphan gorillas, and the whole story starts when they first find the latest orphan. Like all the others, the baby gorilla's parents were shot and killed, leaving a few bullet wounds in the baby's hand. Why they were killed is perhaps even more gruesome.. bushmeat. Yes, people eat gorillas (in Africa, or near it, at least). To me, this is borderline canabalism. Besides some people enjoying this illegal meat, the forests in which the gorillas inhabit are being cut down, making way for roads and farmland. It's pretty fucking sad when it gets to the point that people are so ignorant as to wipe out members of their own family. Killing a gorilla, or any primate for that matter, should be treated just as severely as any other murder, maybe even moreso.
Speaking of animals, I came across this article not too long ago. Here's an excerpt from it:
That fur trim on your jacket that you think is fake? Tell it to Fido. An animal advocacy group says its investigation has turned up coats - some with designer labels, some at higher-end retailers - with fur from man's best friend. Some retailers were set scrambling to pull the coats from shelves, take them off Web sites and even offer refunds to consumers ...... Three coats - from Tommy Hilfiger's Web site ShopTommy.com, Nordstrom.com and a coat from Andrew Marc's MARC New York line sold on Bluefly.com - contained fur from domesticated dogs. The others had fur from raccoon dogs - a canine species native to Asia - or, in one case, wolves. The single correctly labeled coat was trimmed with coyote fur, but it was advertised as fake ...... Raccoon dogs look like oversized, fluffy raccoons and aren't kept as pets. Importing their fur is not illegal, but activists argue they are still a type of dog. "This is an animal that is routinely killed by stomping them, or beating them, or skinning them alive," Markarian said. Video produced by Swiss Animal Protection and posted on the Internet shows raccoon dogs clubbed or slammed on the ground and some writhing, gasping and blinking as they are skinned alive ...... "Americans don't want Lassie turned into a fur coat," Moran said. "In the U.S., we treat cats and dogs as pets, not trimmings for the latest fashion wear."
Pretty fucking sick. Skinned alive? Do these people not know that these animals are living, breathing creatures who, just like them, feel pain? Some people are either too ignorant or are too focused on the money-making business that they don't give a flying shit whether or not they are harming an animal. The fur industry should be altogether illegal. Who the hell gave these people the right to murder something innocent? Something that shares what we all have.. life? And all to make humans feel good by wearing a death symbol. And yes, we treat dogs and cats as pets, and not trimmings for 'the latest fashion wear', but wild animals should be viewed in an even more important role. Without them, we could not be here.
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