As I was looking through the news I happened to stumble upon a strange story in an alternative media branch, this story outlined the dirty deeds of one naught sheep. This sheep was found in a neighbouring farm with a trail of destruction in its wake and the sheep seemed to be ‘slightly overindulged’. In fact, this sheep had consumed approximately $4000 worth of Marijuana (that is about 1,000 of these). Now you might be thinking, hahahahaha Benji this story is crack-up but I believe that there is a deeper message to be pulled from this story. Lets imagine that this was not a sheep but a human being. Well, this person would be charged with possession and consumption of a prohibited substance, battery and maybe even trespassing on private property. We would all be thank full that this person is to be locked away for up to 10 years and happy he didn’t cause more damage. But the real question is….. Shouldn’t animals be charged and imprisoned for their baaaaaaaaaaaaad actions and wrong doing on the earth.
Now this whole issue revolves around the fact that non-human animals are sentient beings, that their lives and wellbeing are valuable. Given that they are sentient beings, they obviously have free will. They make decisions. It is obvious from simply observing them that they have personalities, preferences, values, friendships and loyalties. Take cats for example. Some are very friendly and Some are mean and will hiss and claw at everyone. Surely they realize they are not being very nice, to deny that would be to say that they are just dumb, thoughtless and mindless beasts. ….. But the point