Student Protests
I’m reading about the Student protests that took place in London yesterday regarding raising tuition fees. So I hear there was a bit of violence. This makes me think about the animal rights protests that I have been on. Granted, the size of those are a lot smaller, but I’ve never witnessed any violence in any of the protests I’ve been on. People have this perception that animal rights protesters are ‘bad’… or ‘dangerous’… the FBI apparently has called animal rights activists ‘terrorists’ - but every protest/march that I’ve been on has been peaceful. All we do is march along the streets on an organised protest, some with banners and placards, a couple with horns or loud speakers… I think people into animal rights are wrongly condemned. We’re probably the calmest, nicest people on earth. I mean, we won’t even hurt a fly! Right now it looks like students are more like ‘terrorists’ than animal rights activists! Ok, it’s only a very small number from the student protest that caused damaged, but still… I’ve never seen any damage or violence on an animal rights march. We know the rules, we’re polite, we just try to create awareness, walking through the streets past shoppers, trying to speak up for those that can’t.
So the student protests made the papers and TV because there was violence. Animal rights marches are never written about in the national newspapers. Why is that? Is it because they know that we are good people and they just don’t want to promote the good that we’re trying to do? Why are newspapers so eager to print about violence but not about a good cause? Is it because their advertisers are the very abusers we’re against? The companies that test on animals, the companies that sell products made from animals?
People into animal rights need to be seen in a better light. Many other random members of society are more violent than us. Every day in the newspaper you read about people (or animals) that have been beaten, abused, mistreated by members of society. Animal rights activists are against abuse, against torture, and want to stop that. We want a compassionate existance for every living being. We want freedom for all.
Whose side are you on?
