Opinion: Why Animal Lovers Were The Real Winners This Past Election Day
Animal lovers were the clear winners of this past election day, with many electees taking office that support protecting animal rights, however, those in favor of protecting women's rights did not enjoy the same victories.
Animal lovers certainly made their voices known in the recent election polls across the United States as the results become known. While candidates for women’s rights are struggling to be taken seriously and women’s rights are constantly under attack, candidates who are animal advocates have been popular choices.
Speaking directly from my personal experience, it is hard to put together the words to write this article. I am an animal lover and believe that pets are a great responsibility and a lifelong commitment. I do not support the mistreatment or abandonment of animals in any way, shape, or form.
My mother is a veterinary technician, and in a recent school assignment, my seven-year-old daughter wrote a paper about how she wanted to be a veterinarian when she grew up to help sick animals get better. However, to come to the realization that people in support of animals, animal lovers, can show up and show out and vote to put people in positions of power that they know will fight for the rights of animals and that the rights of women and our bodily autonomy is secondary is a gut-wrenching feeling.
In the year 2022, women should not have to fight for control of their bodies, for equality, to be free from sexual violence, to work, to be educated, to hold public office, to be seen, and to be heard. At the risk of igniting a war with those who are so obviously opposed to the empowerment and dignity of women, why are more people not stepping up and screaming from the top of their lungs that we are worth it and that we deserve more in the same way that animals lover do?
Animal lovers advocate so hard and show up in so many ways for animals that do not have a voice but are so deserving of rights and fair treatment. Are women really so much less than animals that they don’t deserve proper treatment and quality candidates in office who will push and pass legislature that enables our freedom? Women have been fighting since the beginning of time for even just the most basic of rights, and animal lovers are the real winners of the recent elections.
Some fundamental animal rights that animal lovers fight so hard for are that animals may not be bred, that their habitats must be protected to allow them to live according to their choosing, and that they may not be used for hard labor. The irony of it all is infuriating. Animals are enjoying lives according to their choosing, while women are going through lives at the will of laws created by men who have no right to tell us what to do or how to live.
While animal supporters and lovers fight so hard to provide life for them free from pain and suffering, young girls are being told, I am so sorry that you went through rape, but you are now forced to carry the child for nine months and endure childbirth. If this doesn’t light a fire in your soul to stand up for women and young girls everywhere, I don’t know what will. But let’s rejoice for the animals who are the real winners at this election’s polls.
