We Are Witnesses: Stories from The Delta Verse and Unrighteous Universe

Who is truly evil?

Sydney, Australia
December 19, 2020
Bentley Griffith

"Hey, check it out! It's that chick again!" My brother Leonard runs a hand through his hair as he whistles through his teeth. "It's that Australian chick again, ranting about animal cruelty."
I take a glance at the meat aisle of the store and I groan inwardly as I see what he is looking at.
It's the Australian chick, who is ranting and raving while holding a severed hog's head in front of the meat section of the supermarket was starting to piss me off. She'd been ranting and raving madly about how eating animals contributed to animal abuse and that by eating animals we voice our support for animal cruelty. The usual "Go vegan, save a pig" rhetoric.
I can never understand why that is.

She even has the audacity to call me speciesist. Yeah. That's right. She called me, an omnivorous person, a speciesist because of how I enjoy killing animals.
A fact of life, and a facet of our survival as a race, is being condemned as animal cruelty.

Don't these people have anytime better to do with their lives?

The woman is wearing a white shirt and pants with blood smeared all over. At least, it looks like blood.
It may be fake, one of those theatrical props.
Her brown hair is tied back in a ponytail and her piercing blue eyes state daggers at everyone in the store.

"These pigs were six months old when they were forced into a gas chamber and suffocated to death!" The girl continues ranting. "They are just as beautiful as our pet dogs and cats! They are smarter than any other creature on this planet and you killed them! Why are you doing this? Do you shoot them yourselves? Do you slit their throats yourselves?"
I roll my eyes. Ever since I first came to this supermarket while on vacation in Australia this chick has been blasting rhetoric about how eating animals means support of animal abuse. I can tell that I am not the only one who is annoyed, because customers and staff alike are all giving her irritated looks.
"If you eat animals, you are an animal abuser!" The woman drones. "You are an animal abuser if you eat animal products!"

I ball my hands into fists. This woman has lost it. Before she can say another word, I take a step towards her and shout back, "And you're an animal worshipper!"

The woman stops, then looks at me, her eyes wide with surprise. Apparently it's the first time anybody has ever responded to her. "Pardon me?"
"Yeah you want to worship the animals, put 'em on a pedestal and turn 'em into gods!" I continue. "Either that, or you're just delusional!"
"How am I delusional?" The chick stares at me in bewilderment and horror. "I have seen what happens at these slaughterhouses! I know what's happened to them because I have seen it! I have seen and heard their agonizing screams of pain!"
"So have I!" I retort, taking another step further. "I don't feel a thing for those animals, not an ounce of emotion."
"Are you proud to be an animal abuser?" The Australian chick takes another step towards me.
"Are you proud to be a baby-killer supporter?" I retort. The woman's eyes go wide.
That's when I realize that I got her right where it hurts. The woman stutters, "E-excuse me?"
"Yeah. Yeah that's right," I say, and then turn to the people that begin staring at me in addition to the Australian chick. "Yep. I'm a speciesist!" I continue. "Humans are more important than animals! You gotta fend your own before you care about the other kind. Now, I don't condone animal cruelty. I just don't consider eating a steak an example of animal cruelty. Meanwhile you got people like this chick saying it's murder to eat a pulled pork sandwich."
I shake my head. Then I pull out my phone, go to Google, type in a few keywords, and bring up a photo of a dead bear. "See this dead bear here?" The Australian chick looks appalled.
"My God, that's horrible!" She gasps. "You don't think anything should be done to stop it?!"
"Yeah, well, it's dead!" I retort. "Also you don't know what it's done. For all you know it ate a human. A human! Someone obviously shot this bear to save human lives. This guy was potentially a man-eater! But you don't know. So why you jumping the gun saying it's animal cruelty? It's dead! Same with the pulled pork you eat. It's dead! Okay you guys, you humans killed it but it's dead now. I don't see any evidence of torture! It's dead! It's an animal!"
I go back to the phone, exit out of Google Chrome, and bring up another picture to show the Australian chick. "See that? It's a picture of my pet Pitbull. My pet dog Francis. I love him to Death. But I don't see him as a being deserving the same moral rights as a human! If I have to choose between saving a six month old baby and Francis, I will save the six month old baby."
"You would leave your dog to die and save a six month old baby instead?" The Australian chick stares at me with wide eyes.
I nod. "Yes, I would. I mean, there are people right now that are being targeted by genocide! Syria, China, Mexico, Bolivia, the USA-millions of babies are being aborted every day in the US thanks to Roe v. Wade-and the first thing that you get upset about is a cow being slaughtered for steak?!?"
The Australian is speechless. I continue, "If you expect me to care about a polar bear more than a newborn baby human, I'm sorry, you have mental health issues!"
"Bentley..." Leonard steps forward to stop me but I keep going.
"Furthermore there's nothing that warrants the conclusion that animals deserve rights like people," I continue. "A cow doesn't have a moral compass. It doesn't have a soul. It does things out of instinct. A lion does not feel guilty when it kills a gazelle. Why? Because the lion does not have a moral compass. It does not have a soul."
"But we have a moral compass!" The Australian retorts. "We can tell right from wrong! We know what murder is!"
"Yeah but a cow doesn't," I reply. "A cow doesn't. It's only murder if the target that's being killed has a moral conscience like you. Does that make sense?"
The Australian says nothing.

I take a deep breath. "I tell you the truth, once we finally sort out the morally heinous acts that we do as a species towards each other, then I will consider saving a cow, or a hog, or a dolphin. I will save the cows, the cats, the leopards-I will be the next Noah and build an ark out of money, just to save the animals. But that won't happen until we resolve all this racism, sexism, child porn, abortion and domestic Violence that is plaguing the world. I'm going to be donating my money towards humans, my species, because I am a speciesist. Putting animals before people is just... it is a waste of resources, and energy.
"And don't get me started on the 'eating animals causes cancer' BS! Heart disease may be the number killer in the USA nowadays but guess what. We need iron. We need iron from meat. Now plants may have iron but they don't have nearly enough for our bodies to sustain themselves. Can somebody fact check me here?" I turn towards the audience, now numbering about seven hundred people, obviously attracted to my giant tangent.
"Going vegan stops heart disease? What about the people who have disorders that leave them with no choice but to eat meat?" I ask the Australian chick. "I have a cousin who has an iron deficiency disease and you are expecting me to believe that eating plants will help him live longer?"
I take a step towards her. "If you successfully persuade him to go vegan and he falls ill and dies, that technically makes you guilty of first degree murder. You may be looking at prison for a long time, and yet you have the audacity to tell me that we are complete monsters for eating animals? Beating a cow for your own pleasure is morally messed up, yes, but eating a steak? Get your priorities straight before you cause our own extinction," I snarl, before turning and walking out of the store.