March is Women’s History Month, a great time to celebrate women and females of all animal species! If you care about protecting and uplifting women, why would you want to support the exploitation of the females of other species?
Here are five simple things you can do to help end the oppression of all females this Women’s History Month:
1. Eat Vegan
Cows used for dairy are forcibly impregnated and robbed of their children and milk, mother pigs are locked in gestation crates or farrowing crates for ages and repeatedly inseminated, hens are caged in filthy sheds, and their eggs are stolen from them. Then all these animals are slaughtered once their female reproductive systems can no longer be exploited. Can you really call yourself a feminist if you’re paying to use and discard female bodies for your own perceived benefit, when it’s so easy to do otherwise?
2. Help Shut Down Cruel Experiments on Baby Monkeys Being Conducted at Harvard
A mother’s love is not unique to humans. Imagine having a baby who is kidnapped and tortured and then eventually killed and dissected. That is what Margaret Livingstone, an experimenter at Harvard Medical School, has spent much of her 40-year career doing to intelligent animals. She has taken perfectly healthy baby monkeys from their loving mothers at birth and stitched their eyes closed, condemning them to a life of complete darkness. Speak up for these monkey mothers and their babies and demand that Harvard University shut down her lab permanently.
3. Adopt (Don’t Buy) Your Next Animal Companion
Impregnating a female dog and selling her babies for profit is a horrifying thing to do to someone. Dogs have feelings. Putting them through the discomfort of carrying a litter for months and the trauma of labor, followed by the joys of nursing their pups and bonding with them, only to watch helplessly as they’re taken by strangers, is unquestionably cruel. Siblings who would have spent their lives together if given the chance are separated and sent home with anyone holding a credit card. And many of these mothers will be forced to do it all over again until their bodies are spent. If you want to share your life with an animal, do so with one who’s already waiting for you—and spread awareness of the often overlooked plight of animals who are bred and sold.
4. Dress Vegan
Behind any animal-derived garment, such as those made with leather, wool, or cashmere, is a chain of female animals being forced to have babies who are kidnapped and exploited for their very skin. In 2017, PETA observers visited a massive wool operation in Utah, where thousands of sheep from Red Pine Land & Livestock—which was once listed on Patagonia’s website as an approved supplier—were sheared each year. Workers twisted the necks of heavily pregnant sheep, pulled them by their fleece, sent them stumbling down steep ramps, and even whipped them. A PETA Asia investigation found that lambs were strapped down as workers crudely cut large swaths of skin and flesh from their backsides (an industry-standard practice called “mulesing”) while their mothers watched, frantically calling out to and trying to reach their screaming lambs while they were being mutilated.
5. Avoid SeaWorld and Other Marine Parks
SeaWorld has no respect for mothers, babies, or families. Luna, a beluga whale who’s been imprisoned by SeaWorld for over two decades, has been used as a breeding machine, giving birth to four calves. In order to make her conceive her first calf, workers sexually abused her by forcibly impregnating her with the sperm of Nanuq, another beluga whale who was a victim of SeaWorld’s sordid breeding program. Female bottlenose dolphins are still being taken from the water and sometimes drugged so that they can’t fight back while staff force tubes filled with semen into their uteruses. Orcas, other dolphins, and beluga whales are highly intelligent mammals who love their babies, form complex and meaningful relationships, and stay close to their families. Tell SeaWorld to stop breeding dolphins and whales!
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True compassion doesn’t discriminate—and since the desire for freedom, peace, and comfort isn’t specific to humans, our consideration for others should extend to all sentient beings. Females of all species deserve to have autonomy over their bodies and lives. Let’s make dismantling the exploitation of all female bodies a part of our celebration of women!