A poem for animal lovers, vegetarians and vegans. Of course you do not need to be a vegan to be concerned about animal welfare and I do not intend to be an evangelist for veganism, although I am a practising vegan and proud of it. The fact is that, regardless of what we eat, the growth of our population has led to a diminution of the space allocated to the very animals that we say that we want to protect. We continue to breed animals for consumption, absorbing more land, water and other resources than is necessary and producing a large proportion of the greenhous gases from which our planet suffers. The poetry loving hunters among my followers, if there are any, may not be too pleased by what I have said. Hopefully they will recognise the honesty of my sentiments and that things cannot continue as they are.
Animal Life
Fabulous fauna of forest and field
Squeezed into an ever smaller space
From which their necessities they must yield
Before the advancing human race
Others fly in sky, or swim in sea
Or inhabit the rippling river banks
On mountain high, or wherever they be
Let us, for animal life, give thanks
Man requires ever more room to live
To feed his inexorable rise
Though the lands are not even his to give
He claims to control their size
Animals dwelt upon this Earth
Before any human had right
We cannot calculate their worth
Nor need we with them fight
Yet on those with whom some fill their plates
They impose a fence or cage
Convincing themselves that they treat them well
Like prisoners earning a wage
Conflating their feeding with fattening
The inedible largely ignored
Their habitat they’re continually flattening
As the hunted are put to the sword
Some hunt for all that moves with glee
Citing ancient biblical lore
Their lust for their life makes few men see
That they’re continually taking more
Technology grants to us the means
To better cultivate or to kill
The former to further legitimate dreams
The latter just for the thrill
Creatures are locked inside our zoos
So that visitors might pay to see
Beings who must their liberty lose
To give amusement to the free
We have even made a prized profession
For those who contrive to conserve
But humanity grants no meagre concession
To our friends that respect so deserve
Man’s behaviour is selfish, at best
As he denies most damage done
Placing himself far above the rest
We must not even limit his fun
Though he cannot control the wind and the rain
Nor even avoid the flood
Priority he gives to his body and brain
His mind still in primeval mud
Science may supply the means to share
But our morality is often selective
Many may pretend they really care
Even some of our leaders elective
In reality, content to consume all things
Though horrified by the cannibal
Their actions more human expansion brings
Consuming the life of the animal