Editorial: The animal rights paradox

This week’s mag seems to have an animal theme going on. We have the gorilla naming coming up and our main story reveals our inconsistent treatment of cows. Having myself just got a new puppy, friends from the animal kingdom are definitely consuming my thoughts. The human and animal relationship is a complex one. Whether we are eating them, conserving them, feeding them or working with them – animals are part of our everyday lives. And for the most part we are deeply hypocritical. In many parts of the world people are wildly sentimental about their pets, and yet they blandly accept the barbaric treatment of millions of nameless animals in factory farms and slaughter houses. Animal meat is an essential part of our diet and animals are vital to countless scientific experiments and the development of life saving drugs. Here in Rwanda cows are valued above any other animal (except perhaps the gorillas) but our treatment towards them is for the most part barbaric. Gandhi said that “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” Is there any nation then that can call itself great? Ends