Easter Eggs, Bunnies and Roast Lamb. Empathic individuals and children are mocked for not being ‘tough enough’. But maybe these ‘sensitive kids’ are the ones who instinctively know we live in a lopsided world.
Science and research are proving that instinct may be more important than pure intellect. Education in a bubble is futile just as equality on paper is meaningless! Why do you kids play with cute bunnies and then eat lambs for dinner? How are we schooled into these thoughts and actions?
McGuire examines why young adults ‘mature’ into believing it is acceptable to treat farm animals differently from companion animals. The change seems to occur in adolescence. No matter what your views toward food are, what is fascinating is a fundamental change in human empathy. The lambs you see in the photo below are ready for market and Easter dinner. For individuals who deliberately avoid the truth about our food system – put a face to your dinner and it becomes an uncomfortable truth.
said McGuire.1
Easter illustrates how our dogma and willingness to accept traditions without question influence our children’s minds and actions. As a result each year thousands of lambs go to slaughter. (Estimates put our slaughter of land animals for consumption at 70 billion per year). This complete disconnect between food, feeling and respect for animals is why hundreds of bunnies end up in shelters across the world because Easter break ends and school starts. Which means back to routine and the pet has to go!
Maybe this Easter you begin a new tradition to play and volunteer for bunnies in a shelter, pledge to help stop gifting animals. As for the future of lambs, we urge you to read the study below and come to your own conclusions.
1 McGuire, L., Palmer, S. B., & Faber, N. S. (2022). The Development of Speciesism: Age-Related Differences in the Moral View of Animals. Social Psychological and Personality Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506221086182
