You Don’t Eat Your Friends! Even If They Have 4 Legs
Friendship between animals that eat and do not eat helps us understand that it makes no sense to establish differences between them.
Stories of friendship between “companion” animals and “farm” animals are one of the best ways to raise awareness.
Melanie Joy, Ph.D., founder of Beyond Carnism and co-founder of ProVeg, says these stories make us “reconnect with our natural empathy ” and “individualize animals.”
Thus, “help get through the defenses of the carnismo ” invisible ideology that makes c omamos some animals but not others.
Is there a difference between pets and farm animals?
With this in mind, I decided to browse Odd Couples, a platform that broadcasts videos of interspecies friendships. There I discovered the story of Chance and Sammy, a goat and a dog.
Chance arrived at Farm Animal Refuge at just 6 days old, very weak and unable to use his hind legs. Sammy helped him gain self-confidence. Sadly, Chance recently passed away. His friendship with Sammy, however, will remain forever.
To a video of questioning your diet and being vegan
Jordan Russo, the co-founder of the shelter, defends that people who love these types of videos are “potential vegans” and “may be only a video away from questioning their diet.”
“Many people would not see a video of a slaughterhouse, but they would see one in which an adorable goat plays with a dog,” adds Jordan.
In real stories we see that there are no animals that are only meat
Charlie was a weak little lamb when he arrived at Happy Tails Sanctuary. Dora, a kitten of a couple of months, connected with him immediately. Their friendship sweetened his first months of life. Currently, Charlie is recovered and lives with other sheep, but continues to receive visits from Dora.
According to Carla Reilly Moore, co-founder of the sanctuary, these stories teach us that “we all want the same thing; love, comfort, a sense of belonging and … a great friend. “
The friendship between a steer and a dog
Another video that caught my eye was Bucket and Colton. From the moment steer Bucket and Colton met, they became inseparable. Although Bucket has grown up by now, Colton is still his best friend.
Bucket was Susan Klingenberg’s first rescue and the reason she decided to found the Little Buckets Farm Sanctuary.
Susan hopes that Bucket and Colton’s story will show that “cows and steers have the same personality as dogs” and that “people will associate them as equals and will not want to eat any of them.”
Love and tenderness lead to respect
In the same way that investigations are of vital importance to show the bloody reality that the livestock industry hides from us, images loaded with tenderness are essential when it comes to reaching people’s hearts.
These stories are just a small sample of how empathy and love can also promote respect for all animals.
