Digital Dissenter

So in my first post post-BJourn, I said I wouldn't be blogging until something grated my carrot enough to inspire a bit of e-ranting. This week my carrot was sufficiently grated.

I was really excited to attend the charity premiere of "Jane's Journey" the feature film that documents the life of Jane Goodall. Her work as a conservationist/environmentalist/humanitarian is truly inspiring. Of course, as an animal rights activist, for me the most important aspect of her legacy is the great insight that her work has offered into the lives of our very close relatives, the chimpanzees. The implications of these insights were aptly expressed by anthropologist Louis Leaky, when he received a telegram from Goodall exclaiming that she had witnessed the chimps creating and using tools. Leaky's response was: “Now we must redefine man, redefine tool – or accept chimpanzees as human.”

My friends and I were keen to be able to lend our support to the local Jane Goodall Institute by attending the event. As we arrived and joined the queue to collect our tickets, we were happy to see that snacks were also being provided. So while we stood in front of the photographs of chimp rescues and conservation efforts, we were offered a tray of mini-hamburgers. We almost just assumed they were vegetarian burgers, given the occasion and the context of the event, but luckily we asked, because they were in fact run-of-the-mill beef patties.

Strange, we thought, since this entire event is in aid of a cause that helps animals. Surely they will at the very least cater for vegetarians even if the food isn't all vegetarian? Apparently not.

The menu was burgers, chicken drumsticks, chicken samosas, biltong and droe wors.

My carrot was being grated at both ends. The event coordinators were clearly not thinking about the type of audience that may attend such an event. Although, maybe they were.

And this is the other part that irks me. The number of 'animal lovers' who were eagerly munching their chicken drumsticks and hamburgers was quite something to behold.

Especially when they expound on the cruelty inflicted on those poor chimpanzees, with a mouth full of dead cow (some may find "dead cow" a bit of an aggressive description, but it's entirely accurate is it not?).

Of course one doesn't want to be preaching to the converted, and it's great that so many different people attended the event. But chances are, they wouldn't have even noticed if vegetarian substitutes had been served.

I sincerely wonder if the irony of the situation was not completely lost on the meat-eaters. I wonder if during the film, while they were picking chicken out of their teeth, if they stopped and made the connection between the animals they were seeing on screen, whose lives one woman was passionately defending, and the lives of the animals that were lining their stomachs. Or perhaps they simply felt like they deserved a pat on the back for attending a charity event, and for buying a toy chimp. Perhaps that is as far as some people's compassion extends.

Or perhaps the irony of last night, (and what I hope was for some a realisation of their own hypocrisy) has made that first vital crack in their veneer of ignorance of ALL animal suffering.

PS: Jane Goodall is an organic vegetarian, and won't stay anywhere that can't cater for her eating habits. So it's not just me :)