Saturday 16 August 2008

Cruel World

Every so often, something comes along in our lives which stops us in our tracks. This is probably going to be quite a "heavy" blog post for me but I ask you to take a few moments to read it.

At the begining of this week, I was fairly disturbed to see the war in Georgia and it made me think about the madness that goes on the the world. Nations behaving like schoolboys in a playground and fighting rather than reaching solutions without destruction and death.

Following some ordinary living, painting etc, I settled down the other night to watch a programme which I had recorded on Channel 4, Kill It, Skin It Wear It. I would start off by saying that I would not describe myself as an "animal lover". I like animals and I once owned a dog but I am in no way fanatical.

For the first time, I really understood why some people get so upset about animal welfare. The footage in this programme was possibly the most disturbing that I have ever seen in my life. I have used a fairly tame image of a caged mink above because I think that people should have the right to decide if they want to view disturbing images. What I would say though, is that just because you can't see something doesn't mean that it doesn't happen.

The image of an animal being skinned alive will stay in my brain forever. The shot of the still moving animal, robbed of its skin and fur, with it's eyelashes still blinking and limbs moving will never leave me. I just don't understand how a human could do this. This footage was shot in China, who are currently hosting the Olympics and trying to promote their country. Much has been said about their human rights record but it seems that they have an equally disgraceful animal abuse record.

So, no chat about painting in this post. I understand that many people of older generations were not really educated as to why wearing fur is wrong. Today, we really have no excuse. It's disappointing to note that many of the big design houses and celebs are getting back into fur. Maybe if they had to peel the skin from a living animal and look into it's eyes they would reconsider. Humanity at its worst.

I recommend you view this video link with caution.