I am working in impact, sustainable, and gender-lens investing for quite a while and have been part of many fellowships, workshops, and conferences focused on SDGs. Still, it never crosses my mind that none of the SDG goals focus on 70 billion land animals and possibly 1 trillion marine animals killed EVERY YEAR.
The argument against animal cruelty is pretty strong, though it’s a matter of time when everyone in the mainstream will accept and talk about it. Right now, a handful of us is trying to make a dent in animal welfare by activism, vegan businesses, or vegan investing.
Beyond Cruelty calls for the United Nations to add Zero Animal Exploitation as the 18th Sustainable Development Goal to its objectives.
Why should we add “Zero Animal Exploitation” as our 18th SDG goal?
Slavery
Today it's immoral to have a slave or treat someone as a slave. Even though racism still exists, nobody in the right mind can support racism of any kind or type. That's how we have evolved to accept the moral arguments behind this topic.
Gender rights
Still, there were times when women, especially in western society, were legally treated below men. Similarly, now women have the same fundamental rights as men, and nobody can dare fight against this argument. As a feminist, I think we have given fundamental rights to women. However, as a society, we still have a lot to do to accept different genders and create equal opportunities.
Animal rights and the future of meat
Today it's moral to eat pigs, cows, chickens, goats, etc., but strangely, it's immoral to eat your own cat and dog. I see the point, but it's very logically inconsistent. Do we as humanity can accept this logical inconsistency for a long? NO Fudge NO, we won't, and that's where we will expand our empathy circle for animals beyond humans and few animals like dogs or cats.
What is moral today in most people's heads will be immoral and potentially criminalized in the future? We evolve as a society; we learn from our past, but we don't just get stuck in the past, and we don't need to. We can be better. It's a matter of time, to be honest, that many other vegans and I will be proven right, but I feel the pain for those voiceless animals who are at the moment crying for not to be slaughtered for pleasure and someone's hunger. None of us wants to give pain to others and to even animals, and hey, it's okay to accept your failure and make mistakes, almost every vegan used to be a non-vegan, too, including me.
If you are a vegan, it's important to understand we as a society are conditioned in a certain way; there will be inertia against the idea of a NO-MEAT world. Still, as soon as we passed the inertia, then things will start to change. I already see patterns in the upcoming generations, which are more conscious and cares about these issues. We, as vegans, need to be non-judgemental and act as better choice architects.
If you are non-vegan, please forgive vegans. If you think they are judgemental, they come from a place of heart and love for animals, and they feel hurt equally that non-vegans cannot understand them.
I hope we all can pass on the initial inertia and resistance against the concept of NO-MEAT/NO-ANIMAL ABUSE and probably reach a state when it is immoral to even think and talk about it.
Hence, we need to add SDG goal 18 and bring everyone to agree upon ending animal exploitation.
Inspiration:
[Documentary] Carnage 2017
[Campaign] Beyond Animal Exploitation Manifesto
If you are building a vegan business or investing directly in vegan businesses, please do write to me. I would love to learn more from you and would be happy to help in any way.
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