TO THE EDITOR:
Animal Awareness Week, sponsored by Helping Paws, has been a fantastic success with hundreds of people coming out to meet the animals in the Pit, see the film screenings and view the Animal Liberation Project panels that PETA2 brought to UNC.
This week was not meant to shock, horrify or guilt you, but to create an informed dialogue about how animals play an integral role in our daily lives.
Even if you don’t have pets or otherwise see animals all of the time, you make daily decisions that impact animals worldwide. When you purchase cosmetics and household cleaners you can choose to purchase products from companies that test on animals or from companies who have made it their mission to institute compassion and don’t.
When you purchase clothes you can choose to wear pieces made from leather, wool and fur stripped from animals or you can wear fibers made from plants.
Most importantly, with each meal, you can choose to eat meat raised in horrendously cruel factory farm conditions, eat meat from sustainably-bred animals that were treated with a modicum of respect or abstain from eating meat altogether.
Hopefully everyone has learned they can be compassionate consumers, because regardless of whether you are an herbivore or an omnivore, there are thousands of steps you can take to relieve animal suffering.
Today, Helping Paws will be in the Pit again with puppies and information about how to make humane choices. We hope that you will stop by and visit.
Alex Lane
