Times change and here I am one of those 'not quite normal' people. I don't go into sex shops (well, I did once) but I am a vegetarian with my three daughters. My oldest daughter has gone one step further as she is Vegan.
Now you might be wondering what this has to do with Animal Rights...?
It is simply that supporters of animal rights tend to be seen as cranks. They are like those veggie diners years ago, who were on the fringe of every day behaviour.
Demonstrating against Air France/KLM* around the world seems laughable to some folk or even annoying but every day there are those who are gradually coming to the realisation that there is something wrong with the torture laboratories inflict on all types of animals. It is wrapped in the acceptable words of 'in the name of science', 'vivisection' (The action of cutting or dissecting some part of a living organism; spec. the action or practice of performing dissection, or other painful experiment, upon living animals as a method of physiological or pathological study).
Bullshit!
Just remember that no animal is a substitute for another. Tests on monkeys are only viable for monkeys. Thalidomide was tested on several different species without harmful results before it was used on humans with disastrous effects. What does that say for science?
And while I'm speaking of bullshit, how can any person pay to go and see a bull tortured to death? Where is the pleasure in shouting Olé, as the poor creature finally falls to its knees?
I am not even going to start talking about the real fur trade or whaling or any number of other dreadful practices against animals. They are subjects that I will discuss, at the risk of appearing a crank, on another day.
The next time you hear a loud speaker or megaphone denouncing the mistreatment of animals, don't think of those demonstrators as eccentrics but rather as the leaders in a whole new way of thinking that may actually make us healthier people in the long-run. You might like to join them and make a difference to the world as a crank!
*Air France/KLM continue to transport monkeys and various other animals to their deaths in laboratories. Half of them die in transport. They are the lucky ones...