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Stop Blaming The Lions
Start Acting Like A Grown-Ass Adult
Little kids. They’re funny, they’re cute and they say the most hilarious things. They can also get up to quite a bit of mischief.
You know that thing they do when they get caught doing something naughty and they’ll whine in what they hope is their most appealing, yet indignant, voice:
“But Sam did it, toooooo…”
It’s funny, but it doesn’t really wash as an excuse, especially if ‘Sam’ is half their age.
“Well, you should know better,” is often the exasperated response from their flustered parent.
Thing is, though, when adults make the same whining excuse, it’s a lot less endearing.
Like when you tell people about the immense suffering involved in the meat industry — the abuse, the exploitation, the cruelty, the killing — and they reply, “But lions eat meat…”
What?
It’s a bit of a lame excuse when your six-year-old tries to pardon their own misbehaviour by blaming their little brother or sister, but a grown-ass adult human trying to blame their own bad behaviour on the fact that they were simply doing what they saw a wild animal do first… come on, dude. Really?
What kind of system of ethics models the behaviour of wild animals as a basis for its moral framework? It’s ludicrous. It’s the most ridiculous and illogical kind of argument you could come up with, and yet I long ago lost count of the number of times I’ve heard people using it.
And they trot out this feeble excuse with a completely straight face as if they really do believe that the fact that lions do something makes it OK for them to do the same thing.
The thing is, if they stopped to think about the logic of what they were saying, even for a minute, they’d surely have to realise the stupidity of that argument. I mean, where does it end?
“Yes, your honour, I was walking around town naked, but lions walk around naked.”
“Yes, your honour, I did rape her, but lions rape other lions.”
“Yes, your honour, I did kill the neighbour’s baby, but lions kill their neighbours’ cubs.”
How far would ‘lions, tho’ get you in a court of law if you used it as a defence for your own transgressions?
It’s time we stopped blaming our bad behaviour and harmful actions on other animals and started taking responsibility like mature adult humans.
We don’t need meat or other animal products to survive. Some of the strongest, fastest and fittest athletes on the planet fuel themselves on a 100% plant-based diet. It’s better for us, it’s better for the planet and it’s certainly better for the animals themselves, if we simply stop trying to come up with a constant string of nonsensical excuses to keep on exploiting animals for products we just don’t need.
Isn’t it better just to go vegan?
