Depressed Miniature Penguins

I woke up this afternoon from a very disturbing dream. I was around animal rescuers who had rescued miniature penguins; they were the size of a sparrow. The poor penguins had been enslaved and abused. The rescuer had an odd method of having them, though; he kept them in makeshift, white ziploc bags. I was worried about them getting enough oxygen so I unzipped the bags.

They could talk. They were happy to be rescued. Yet, one was so near death, it said, "So they're starving me to death. It would be okay if I died because then I'd possess my own life." It could not even really comprehend that it had been rescued after years of abuse.

Such a sad, strange dream. When I woke up, I thought of the millions of animals that are enslaved and tortured for whichever ways we can use and exploit them. It is not excusable simply because it's popular.

I have been watching a lot of historical documentaries lately, and I think they lack objectivity. The narrator often interjects a way of excusing people because of the time period they lived in. Even on slavery, it was dismissed as what was done then, and a person was all but heralded as a god just because he shaked the hand of someone of a different race. Slavery was excused; cruelty in battle was excused. Dozens of things are excused because of the time period historical figures found themselves in.

No, it does not matter that it was popular. If something is cruel...if you commit an injustice...you don't get a free pass because it's the popular thing to do.

I know the penguins were just the product of my imagination, but the other animals living in cruel and enslaved conditions are not in my head. They're in the world, suffering right now. It's not okay to pay someone for a decaying corpse of a once living, breathing and feeling animal just because it can be done at the local grocery store. It's not right. It must be stopped. A human who chooses to eat an animal is unethical and unfathomably cruel, even if it doesn't feel that way because the cruelty of the action is disguised by its own popularity and the convenience of getting it from the store next door and the encouragement from the romaticized television commercial that offers 10 decaying chicken body parts for $20.