Should Kids Be Dragged into Animal Rights Activism?

I have recently watched a TV program about the abuse of several elementary school age children by a group of animal rights activists.

These children were made puppets in a publicity stunt by adults who willingly violated their rights.

I am embarrassed to say, I was in shock and my first initial thought was what can I do to protect the kids. But how are you supposed to protect kids from their own parents. Especially when their parents are animal rights advocates?

It’s as if whatever gives them a passion for animals… comes with a huge side-dish of both irony and hypocrisy.

I believe at this point I should tell you precisely what I saw on TV—without any form of exaggeration or irony—and then reveal the reaction of on-lookers, demonstrators and the police.

It was a school day and around 75 people gathered outside the campus of UCLA in Westwood, California to protest against animal testing.

Among the ones protesting were a few parents who brought their elementary school age children along to take part in the demonstration. There were around seven or eight children as young as 10 years old.

What made things even worse was that parents pushed their own children to pose for numerous photos, handing them a number of distasteful and controversial protest signs to hold.

And just as it usually happens, the photos taken at this event were uploaded straight to Facebook and other social media platforms for the world to see.

Let’s be clear, these are photos of elementary school age children who in all likelihood have virtually no idea or clear understanding of things they are forced to protest against.

These are children who certainly can’t give their consent to have their pictures taken to be used for propaganda purposes all in the name of animal rights activism.

These are children who likewise all children heavily rely on their parents to make good choices for them and to keep them safe.

Now, you might question me about the harm any of these demonstrations might cause a child in a long run. And that’s to be expected. Let’s agree to disagree.

I realize that most parents consciously choose to make decisions for their children that I, personally, think are irresponsible and could result in a child getting lost, becoming traumatized or even worse.

For example, let’s look at animal rights activism. Once recorded and put on social media it will follow a person wherever he goes.

There is no way to escape it. What makes things even worse is that even if a child grows up to be a meat-eater or believe in something completely different to veganism, this footage will haunt him for forever.

Or what if a child would want to work for the meat, dairy, leather, or fur industry? Being filmed alongside animal rights lunatics could easily prove to be professionally embarrassing. Surely that’s not the future most parents want for their youngsters.

Thanks to the internet, it’s now 100% impossible to hide from your past. Even if it’s a past you had no hand in creating.

So, tell me, how does our society consider it to be normal to involve kids in adult protests while getting completely outraged by some third-world companies using child labor?

Both things are immoral in my view, but, unfortunately in both cases I can’t do anything to help. It’s a sad reality of the world we are living in.

Oh, remember I told you I’d tell you the reactions from the police, demonstrators and passers-by? Well… as best as I can tell, no one seemed to care that kids were being abused. (As it’s all in the name of animal rights, right?)

You see, the problem with animal rights activists is that we don’t take their actions seriously enough. Since when did child abuse look like yet another Facebook post?