Jessie Nicole Hopes

    A change I personally made in my life that has affected me a great deal is that I became an animal rights activist and a vegetarian. Since animals can not defend themselves, someone has to. Animals are a lot like humans and should be given the chance at life just as every human that walks this land.

    The way I think about it is that, animals are very much like us. They just speak a different language and have a different body structure. They have thoughts, feelings, affections and needs just as well. And the more I think about it the more I realize that since in my opinion the only thing that separates an animal from a human is a different language and body type, I think of it as if it were just a foreigner coming over to our country. They would look different and speak different as well.

    Many things harm and take innocent animals lives and strictly for our selfish desires. Things as simple as eating meat. Vegetarians are proved to live, longer healthier lives than meat eaters, so eating meat is not a necessity. Wearing animal furs. What is wrong with fake products? Hardly anyone can notice whether it is real or fake and faux products are a lot cheaper. Think of it as wearing the entire dead animal on you. Why would you want to wear something that was once living?

    Dissection is another issue that is not mandatory. Some schools try to force kids to dissect, even if the kid is seriously not into it. There are online dissection programs the child can do, why can’t schools save animals and just do online programs for things like that? Most things are done with technology today anyways.

Animal testing is something I strongly disagree with. Why must we test on animals when clearly the product is not intended for the animal? The Mars Company tests on animals when they do not eat M&M’s. The Covergirl make-up company tests on animals and obviously a rabbit will not be wearing lipstick. Testing on humans that are most likely going to buy the product should be the ones testing it. Just because a product reacts a certain way to an animal doesn’t even mean that is how it is going to react with a human. That is why companys still have to place warning labels on products because animals react differently. Testing on them is pointless and just another useless excuse to murder little creatures.

    I believe that becoming vegetarian and an animal rights activist has been very important because now with everything that I know, I do not want to be considered a selfish person for eating something, or purchasing an item that an animal died for. I want to fight against this and speak out and make my voice heard about how wrong animal testing and dissection are. I want to make a difference for those that are unable to themselves.