On Makeshift Stretchers

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In the release of the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, the movie has already reeled in 73 million dollars. I had always taken a large but subliminal interest to the Planet of the Apes franchise only because it contains positive undertones of animal rights activism.

Watching 60 minutes tonight, though, I came to a sense of internal shock as I watched footage of the aftermath of a massacre of a gorilla family in Virunga National Park, a sanctuary for these animals. What was meant to be a home, an area of sanctity, promised land of safety was turned into a battleground due to the wants and desires of a greedy pack of humans. These humans placed themselves once again over the animals and thought it decent to slaughter this precious family to make a statement about bits of charcoal. What is a life worth anymore?

Sometimes I feel guilty looking at a five-dollar note. That mere five dollars that can buy me a meal from McDonald's. It can get me a little more petrol to take me home in the event that I run out of petrol. It can buy me a large block of chocolate to share with my entire family. It can buy me a nice warm lunch at my university campus. It can do so much. But what it can also do is, if divided equally, contribute to five charities. The power that pink plastic note has is enormous. Think about that. Think about a ten-dollar note. Then a twenty-dollar note. Then a fifty, then a hundred. Then think of several hundreds. Then think of a life. What would money be without a life? Life is priceless. Money can only improve life, but in this situation it obliterated it.

The Planet of the Apes appeals to me also in the way that it portrays a revenge-esque attack on mankind. That should frighten me because maybe Banksy is right after all, that one day rats and monkey will kill us instead, but instead it makes me happier. Animals deserve their rights. Animals and humans alike should be able to live on this planet peacefully, and all species must work according to natural selection and the food chain. We have upset the food chain by injecting chickens with hormones, by fattening up pigs prematurely - and we have upset ethical and moral standards by slaughtering them in brutal ways. Is it necessary for a camera crew to have to go into a slaughterhouse for people to start taking action? 

We should have our own rising. Our own rising against people who test on animals, people who torture animals and kill them for fun, people who think that little chicks are getting treated fairly, people who think that animals are not treated awfully in their moments of slaughter. We need more of the releasing of animals who are tested on. We need more people to protest. We need to stop the torturous handling of baby Turkeys - maybe then celebrators of Thanksgiving will have more legitimate things to be thankful about.

As for gorillas, I will be there to support their cause when they rise. When they form allies with chimpanzees and apes and orangutans alike to revolt against human beings and their need to hold animals in captivity for their own selfish indulgences. I will be a less-hairy ally for these beautiful creatures.