The Right To Self-Determination
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The School of Visual Arts launched an ad campaign focused on self-determination. The ads happen to feature true stories about three animal species: horses, turkeys, and rabbits. In each story, a bit of the animal’s history is explained along with an explanation about how a part of that animal became “lucky” according to modern American culture.
The sad irony is that none of these animals are lucky.
Hopefully, this campaign will have a side-effect of educating people about the plight of these animals and hopefully, it will encourage people to think twice about how humans treat nonhumans. Perhaps these ads will inspire a few more people to go vegan.
The copy in white text on the black inkblot background says:
“Equine nobility. Born to run free, but tamed by man and shod in iron. Led to field by peasants and broken by the plow. Or raced on the tracks of kinds only to shatter upon the hard dirt. And finally, to slaughter and the most ignoble of ends, as food for lesser beasts. Yet, in spite of this miser, the horseshoe, the very symbol of a horse’s servitude is still seen as a vessel of good fortune. But the horse knows different. It knows that the horseshoe leads to many things, but good luck is never one of them. Don’t depend on luck. Create Your Own Future. School of Visual Arts.”
“Behold this unfortunate flightless bird, rendered asexual and bred by artificial insemination. Reduced to an industrial commodity and packed into plants by the thousands with breasts so swollen from genetic manipulation that their legs collapse beneath them. Yes, millions take joy in finding the poor turkey’s wishbone, believing it will somehow bring luck. But what exactly about this misbegotten bird is so lucky? If it was lucky, it would have been an eagle. Don’t depend on luck. Create Your Own Future. School of Visual Arts.”
“Look down the food chain, down near the very bottom where life is most precarious and you’ll find him. The prince of a thousand enemies. Set upon by fox and wolf. Caught in the talons of both hawk and owl. Laid low by the arrows of man. And yet, the grisly tradition of severing the poor rabbit’s foot for luck endures. As if the very foot that couldn’t even save its own master from a ghastly end, could somehow bring its new owner good fortune. Don’t depend on luck. Create Your Own Future. School of Visual Arts.”
I was a little disappointed in the bunny copy, I have to admit. If I had my way, the copy would read:
Right alongside cats and dogs in animal “shelters,” rabbits are one of the most commonly euthanized animals. Bought and sold as fuzzy playthings in Spring, many are discarded before the first days of Summer. Or factory farmed, like chickens and pigs, the rabbit is skinned for his fur or butchered for his meat. The most unfortunate of all rabbits, though, is the laboratory bunny whose sensitive eyes are often subjected to harsh chemicals in unreliable Draize tests. And yet, the grisly tradition of severing the poor rabbit’s foot for luck endures. As if the dead appendage of an animal called “the poster-child for animal rights” could somehow bring its new owner good fortune.
Hat tip to Ecorazzi.
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