30 dead monkeys in Krefeld. Died in a fire under mysterious circumstances. And an entire nation seems to be grieving. The media, whether online or offline, pounce on this message like the vultures. Because that promises a lot of attention. And the bill actually worked. On social media, people seem to outdo themselves who can show more compassion and grief for these poor creatures. There are calls for vigils and funeral rallies. And they follow the call-in droves. Of course, it is terrible and a tragedy. After all, 30 living things have been killed that should not be in these stables, but rather in their home, with their families.

But pity stops there. We want to have them here and be able to gape at them. No one cares how unhappy these animals are in captivity, because after all they serve our amusement. But what is even more irritating are the many reports of barn fires, which are reported almost every day throughout the year, in which not 30, but sometimes hundreds, if not thousands, of animals – as in the case of a chicken coop fire – burn alive. But no state mourning is proclaimed, no one calls for demos or vigils. „Delicious grilled chicken!“, some are not stupid to comment. Then that’s it and you move on to the agenda. The difference is that the victims are only so-called farm animals, i.e. pigs, cows and chickens, primarily. In addition, we would not be able to finish, because of all the vigils. We just take it for granted. Not to mention that these animals were just waiting to be slaughtered anyway. What else should you worry about? It was just an isolated case. Only that these individual cases happen strangely almost every day. Why is it possible to ask yourself that a barn in which animals are kept, which the farmer protects as well as if they were his own children, easily goes up in flames? The owners are devastated before they can rebuild the prison even bigger with the help of the insurance money. There was a loss of earnings, but you will make up for it with even more animals in an even narrower space.

If our love of animals, which had been so widely propagated, were really worth a chanterelle, vigils would actually have to take place somewhere every day. Not only for burned-down stables, but also for animal transporters that have had an accident or at slaughterhouses. If we really wanted to be taken seriously in any way in our dealings with our non-human companions, then we would still have to open all the stables and let the animals out to pasture in order to at least offer them a hint of what he likes so much species-appropriate husbandry. Quite apart from the fact that we would have to refrain from shredding chicks, neutering piglets without anesthesia or exposing them to the stress of slaughter on the assembly line. But none of this happens. Nobody voices for it. No rustling of leaves goes through the media. Life goes on as normal. And stiffly and firmly we continue to claim that we loved animals, that we couldn’t harm any animal. We do not even need it anyway, the others, the paid animal abusers and murderers, so that we can easily overlook how deeply lying and self-loving such an attitude is. In addition, we want to eat these animals, but only in a state in which you no longer notice that our so-called food is actually a living being. It is therefore also good that the media do not interfere, because who wants to be reminded every day of what is happening right next to us. The residents of the concentration camps wanted it just as little as those of the animal exploitation companies and slaughterhouses. And then you can maintain the image of being a good person without problems. How simple life can be if you only have blind spots in the right places in your perception.