As you were standing in line to get your seats at Budweiser Gardens to see Scott and Tessa’s world renowned Olympic ice dance routine, you may have seen a small group of black clad mask wearing demonstrators. These individuals represent Anonymous for the voiceless a small but well organized political arm of the vegan movement.
The demonstration was part of international cube day which is a day of action where the other chapters of the organization get out onto the street with videos from the inside of slaughterhouses.
The organizers are hoping to engage people in London in ways they haven’t been engaged by politics before. The movement is calling for an end to the consumption of animals. They argue that simply because we perceive animals to not have sentience or are unable to recognize it does not mean that we have the right to slaughter them for food. The movement would like to see us equate humans qualities to animals even if we can’t observe them. Along with those qualities are the rights that we have for ourselves and to make it illegal to kill an animal as it is illegal to kill a person.
That extension right there is the key to their message. Extending person hood to animals in some ways has already taken place in our society. Animals have won court battles and even intellectual property rights. These battles of course were conducted by humans on behalf of four legged complainants, but the essence is still there.
This radical and intentionally offensive material is intended to disturb and provoke emotional responses (and unfortunately I can’t show it to you… but here’s a link.) For the most part the demonstrators are silent except for the few ‘outreachers’ who distribute information and hope to garner support for their cause. Their message is in the ‘cube’ it speaks for itself.
