HuffPo Author: Farm Animals are “Entitled to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”

Writing for the Huffington Post last week, Kathy Stevens explained why she believed that animals are the most oppressed group in the United States today.

Her article, “Onward for All of Us: Thoughts on Independence Day,” compared the death of animals to racism and gay marriage. However, miss Stevens argued that it is animals who are suffering even more.

“Our work is never done: yesterday’s oppressed are tomorrow’s defended,” she writes. “And who, America, are more oppressed than the animals?”

She argues that farm animals have the same feelings as humans, detailing, “The emotions we experience–love, excitement, anticipation, empathy, frustration, impatience–ALL OF THEM–are experienced by chickens and pigs, sheep and cows. And, of course, pain and suffering feel the same, whether we are dog or cat, pig or person.”

Ms. Stevens

“Oppressing” animals by killing and eating them is no different than oppressing people based on race or orientation, Stevens continues: “Let me ask a simple question. If animals are a) unique individuals, b) who want their lives as much as I want mine, and c) feel terror, confinement, pain, and suffering just as I would, how is oppressing them any different than oppressing humans based on superficial differences like skin color, gender, social class or sexual orientation?

“Isn’t the urgent next step in our evolution to honor the billions just like us in the ways that matter?” she writes (emphasis hers).

We must take down the Confederate flag, support gay marriage, and stop eating meat, Stevens continues, arguing, “When communities take down a flag that symbolizes hatred and oppression, it feels good. When all of us are finally able to look at the person we love and say, “Will you marry me?” it feels good. As a nation, we lived by The Golden Rule last week, and in doing so, honored all of us.”

So, in honor of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, we must realize that “all beings–not just humans, dogs, and cats–are entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Stevens then concludes, “Join the legions who have chosen to align their lifestyles with their beliefs. All you have to do is go vegan. And now onward. For all of us.”