Millions of minks are now gassed in Denmark and the Netherlands. The reason is a variant of the Covid-19 virus, which was discovered in animals and can be transmitted to humans. Sensational reports are inevitable and adorn the front pages of several newspapers. People read it and find it terrible. “What is being done there with the poor animals”, I hear, “It’s so cruel to kill them all now.” Precisely that it is not said when they had such a beautiful life. A pointless death.

But nobody seems to think that these animals, which had to spend their whole lives in tight wire cages, would have been gassed in a few weeks anyway. But there would have been no reports, because dying for the fur industry is normal and not worth reporting. It happens every year. Millions of animals are raised and murdered under the most shameful conditions for their fur. Nobody seems to talk or worry about it when the fur on the collar is just fluffy enough. Where’s the outcry when the animals are being bred? Where is the indignation over the sickness of imprisonment? Why does empathy fall silent in the face of senseless death? It doesn’t exist. Year after year, activists around the world raise awareness of this. Tireless as the fur industry goes on with its hustle and bustle, because there are still enough people who simply don’t seem to care about the suffering. Otherwise there would finally be a media-effective debate about animal exploitation.

But this year, under the sign of the pandemic, there is another aggravating factor. The major pandemics of recent years came from the animal exploitation industry and our dealings with nature. It is the same with the corona virus. Instead of dealing with the actual causes and eliminating them, namely the mass keeping of living beings in a confined space, symptoms are simply combated. It is exciting that none of the influential media brings a big headline like „Stop pandemics by ending factory farming“ or „Pandemics come from animal exploitation“. Why is this information not made available to the general public? And if they do, why is there no outcry or outrage? Why is it being ignored?

The answer is relatively easy. If we were really serious about avoiding pandemics, we would have to close all factory prisons, slaughterhouses and wildlife markets today. This in turn would mean that people would be able to change their lifestyle and consume little or no animal products. That can’t happen. It is preferred to push the economy against the wall, ensure that millions of people have to fear for their economic existence or lose it and continue to bred pandemics, which in turn are to be kept in check with placebos.

You could now lean back and watch the goings-on, maybe even think, just as humans treat the environment and fellow creatures, it is even best that they do everything to destroy themselves. Then the earth can recover from this virus called Homo Sapiens. You get tired when you experience how ignorant and empathy the real causes are ignored. „Let them do what they want“, one might think, „In the end, the right thing will be shown.“ This omnipresent irresponsibility is shocking, depressing, but as long as you don’t think beyond the single event, about which you can get a little excited, and want to see the connections, we will continue to drive towards doom and a little more on the gas climb instead of pulling the emergency brake.