Graphic post highlights 'hypocrisy' of animal treatment

A Facebook post comparing the ways humans treat animals raised for food compared to pets is going viral - and it is causing a debate on social media.

The animal rights group Anonymous for the Voiceless shared the eye-opening post written by vegan animal rights advocate George Martin on Facebook, where it has since been liked over 2,000 times.

Graphic and honest, Martin’s post compares examples of animal cruelty to their legal, acceptable counterparts for the sake of food - and how the two are considered vastly different despite their similarities.

“Stab a dog in the throat: Animal murderer. Stab a pig in the throat: Circle of life,” Martin wrote. “Cut a rhino’s horns off: ‘Poacher scum! Hang him!’ Cut a bull’s horns off: De-horning.

“Pull a parrot’s feathers off: Sick individual. Pull a goose’s feathers off: ‘Wow, these pillows are so comfy.’”

The post also includes contrasts such as the horrific idea of boiling a dog alive, “savage, uncivilised, grotesque,” to boiling a lobster alive - “fine dining.”

Martin highlighted the differences in how humans view and treat different animals when it comes to fashion, religions or holiday traditions, and animal rights as well.

“Kill a cat for a religious festival and say grace over the corpse: Uncivilised barbarians. Kill a turkey for a religious festival and say grace over the corpse: Christmas,” Martin wrote.

The post has sparked a conversation on social media about animal rights, where some are praising the honesty and the examples of “hypocrisy” while others are defending their actions and those of their fellow humans.

“This makes it so clear and points out the obvious hypocrisy and excuses that are rolled out day after day. So happy to be vegan,” one person wrote.

Many others agreed - “Nicely put. It is time to stop this illogical behaviour,” another commented.

However, there were also those who justified the differences in animal treatment - especially when it comes to treatment of pets versus livestock.

“I just don’t get this! If you look down the list carefully, most of the animals are pets versus livestock. This post is claiming there is no difference between them and we should equally be happy to eat both but of course we will feel differently about a pet to something we have bred for eating or resources. Many of the livestock animals have been selectively bred for meat and/or skin etc. since the Neolithic times and it’s really bizarre to compare them to animals we have selectively bred as pets,” one person wrote.

Others suggested the differences are in the motives - to torture an animal for no reason is cruel compared to killing an animal for the purpose of sustenance.

“The actions with the farm animals are for a specific purpose; to prevent harm to another animal or to consume it. There is absolutely zero reason anyone would kill a dog or a dove, so yes, if a person did that, they’re likely doing it out of some sick pleasure to harm living things. That is psychopathic. Killing an animal to eat it is not,” another explained.