Guest Bloggers
Animal activists pose a clear danger to agriculture. Through terrorists acts,
blackmail and propaganda they try to mislead the man in the street. Their needs
are apparently different to mainstream consumers. Reasoning is almost impossible
with these fundamentalists. There is something wrong with their
self-esteem.
Bob Stallman, President of American Farm Bureau Federation, indicated that
animal welfare extremists pose a clear and present threat to American
agriculture, according to a story in
Brownfield Ag News. Stallman referred to the
Humane Society of the US (HSUS), an anti-livestock group that intends "to
prohibit the use of animals for food or for work," he warned. Not only in the
US, also in Europe and other developed countries these action groups gain
ground. It is interesting to philosophize about the reason why activists almost
put animal rights above human rights.
The first thought that comes to mind is related to Maslow's
hierarchy of needs. This is a
theory Abraham Maslow published in 1954 and is symbolised in a pyramid
consisting of five levels: the four lower levels are grouped together as being
associated with physiological needs (D- or deficit needs), while the top level
is termed growth needs associated with psychological needs (B- or being needs).
Deficiency needs must be met first. Once these are met, a person is seeking
to satisfy personal growth needs. This fifth level is harder to attain and
longing for self-actualisation is seen as being addictive, once experienced it
is something that people tend to want more and more of.
Negative effects
Maslow believed that humans have the need to increase their intelligence and
thereby chase knowledge. Cognitive needs is the expression of the natural human
need to learn, explore, discover and create, to get a better understanding of
the world around them. Animal activists are misusing this need. They see that
their acts (arson, freeing animals) are widely covered in the press and that
they can easily get away with it because it has low priority with the police.
Misinformation or manipulated information further helps to spread their
truth.
The negative effects of their activities never reach the popular press. For
example an undeniable tsunami of
horse
abuse cases has swept across the USA since a ban on horse processing -
pushed by vegan driven animal rights groups - went into effect in early
2007.
Blackmail
Blackmail, not democracy is another method enacted by activists to reach what
they want. Large retail companies are visited and forced to sell or use
cage-free eggs. If the retailers hesitate, their image will be badly damaged
through media-campaigns. Even peaceful living monks don't get a pass. After
months of protests by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the
monks at Mepkin Abbey, a Trappist monastery
in South Carolina, had to give up the egg production business that had sustained
them for nearly 50 years, because their chicken were kept in cages.
Self-esteem
These fundamental animal right activists lack self-esteem. All humans have a
need to be respected, to have self-esteem, self-respect, and to respect others.
Imbalances at this level can result in low self-esteem, inferiority complexes.
People with low self-esteem need respect
Author: Dick
Ziggers
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