Gary Yourofsky Speciesism

Growing up I always had a deep connection with animals and always felt like there was something wrong with consuming them. However, like most people at a very young age I was taught that consumption of meat was essential in order to be healthy despite all of the issues that come along with it. Most of my life I consumed meat and dairy because I chose to believe what our government, health intuitions, and society said. I had on my blinders like most people. During my junior year of high school, I made a blog for my English class about the environmental impacts of consuming meat and dairy as well as the health risks. And that is when I was introduced to Gary Yourofsky, an extremely well known animal rights activists. Gary Yourofsky has given

Speciesism is an ideology that makes there be a prejudice against the members of other species to seem normal and natural. From what we are taught through school and social experiences, we start to see human characteristics and we hold them as the ideal standard to which all others are measured. Because of this idea that humans are above all other species, this idea begins to be implanted into our culture. Making it seem like it is alright to discriminate against animals. There are two forms main forms of speciesism, the first some species are favored more then others such as dogs and cows. The meat and dairy industries have conditioned people to believe that cows, pigs, chickens, and turkeys do not have the same emotions that dogs have therefore it is alright to kill them. The second form is that nonhuman animals are commodities. Nonhuman animals are treated as raw materials for the production or for scientific use. This is speciesism and it is just as wrong and evil as racism, sexism,

The meat and dairy industry practices slavery everyday but yet this is something that seems to be over looked by most people. Slavery is when there is an owner, victim, profit, and domination. And is that not what we do to animals everyday. The animals in the meat and dairy industries receive no legal protection. And are constantly being demoralize and raped for a product. According to the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), which is the federal group that supervises the uses of animals in America stated "When used in this act, the term "animal" ... excludes farm animals, such as, but not limited to, livestock and poultry used or intended for use as food ..." Meaning that the animals that we are eating are not even being recognized as animals under the law they are consider to be less. Which is why the slaughtering of animals has been the longest going holocaust. Every year in America we murder ten billion land animals and eighteen billion marine animals. Yet, for some reason this is something people are still turning a blind eye too. It is not like we kill these animals for health reasons or survival we do it mainly because it tastes good. As stated by Gary Yourofsky: “The problem is that humans have victimized animals to such a degree, that they aren’t even considered victims. They aren’t even considered at all. They’re nothing. They don’t count, they don’t matter, they’re commodities like TV sets and cellphones. We’ve