Golden Rule should apply to animals, too
Martin Luther King Jr. said, “For evil to succeed, all it needs is for good men to do nothing.” (I would make that “good men and women.”)
It is almost impossible to get a perpetrator to change their ways. This is true of a violent individual or a culture of violence. The violence becomes so familiar and so habituated that it is no longer seen as violence. This makes it all the more important for those who witness violence or injustice, and see it for what it is, to not turn away and do nothing.
Most cultures around the world have a version of the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The majority of us accept that it is wrong to do to someone else what we wouldn’t want done to us. While it is mostly accepted, we narrowly define “other.” We conveniently ignore this yardstick of empathy when it comes to a race, religion, gender, species or any other population group we do not want to respect.
Across the U.S., rodeo season is in full swing. Here in Santa Fe, the annual big rodeo, a time-honored tradition, is going to take place this month. There is an unspoken rule that we are not allowed to question this form of “entertainment.”
When I do question it, I am told I am racist or that I “don’t know how well the animals are treated.” I have seen many rodeos. I have seen enough to know that there would be a public outcry if what is done to those involuntary participants were done to anyone we care about. We would not volunteer our dogs, horses, children or ourselves to go through the fear, pain or torture that many of the animals go through for this “entertainment.”
If you have never been to a rodeo, I do not need to go into the specifics of the events that take place. You only need to do a moment of research online to find all the details. Without empathy for the living beings used in the rodeo, they are treated as objects to show off human “skills.”
A prominent woman in Santa Fe who owns horses recently told me that the animals in the rodeo “enjoy” being part of it and that there is nothing wrong with what goes on there. When I asked her if she would volunteer to have her horse or her dog go through what the calves go through, she did not respond.
While I doubt I will have any effect on the rodeo tradition, I do hope I live in a community of people who will take a fresh look at this tradition of violence with an empathetic heart and mind and will not turn away. We have unlimited options for entertaining ourselves without causing harm to others. I would love to see us have the compassion and courage to move in that direction.