Today I went to Shoreline Community College to talk to the students about Speciesism. Some of the students were already vegan or enthusiastic supporters of animal rights, but one student laughed and told me that the informational booklet that I handed her this morning was "good comedy material". She found it hilarious that we would name a chicken because there are so many of them (in the booklet there is a chick named Kevin who was saved from the egg industry). I felt the need to explain to her that animals are individuals who deserve to be named and treated as such. All animals deserve equal consideration of their interests.
I told her that millions of chickens are processed by the food system as though they were nothing more than objects or inanimate materials to be exploited for profit. Farmed animals are commonly thought of as commodities but this is a common misconception. Animals are individuals. They have thoughts, feelings, unique traits and personalities.
I told this student a story of one of my experiences at Ching Sanctuary in Utah. There is a turkey who lives there named Clementine. He would puff up his feathers and rub his body against my leg for affection. He wanted to be pet. He followed me around the farm like a dog would. I explained that just because animals are treated like objects it doesn't mean that they are. No animal wants to be confined, tortured, mutilated or ground up alive at birth (as male chicks are in the egg industry). To pet one and eat the other is speciesism. All animals want to be free from suffering and exploitation.
