The Innocent
By Marisa Herrera
An Animal Rights Poem from All-Creatures.org

All of God's creatures have rights, a fact that most people don't seem to recognize. This includes both human and non-human animals, but not all of them can speak for themselves.

The Innocent
By Marisa Herrera

Our sisters and brothers tokens of man's malice
Times past and present the innocent at the hands of viciousness
Being tortured, killed, drowned, poisoned, harpooned, electrocuted
Among countless other barbaric ways
The most innocent fall victims to man's atrocities
These creatures who were born out of man's circle
Always seen as objects for man's profits

The innocent fall prey to man's atrocities
Whether they are in the wild, the house or in the farm
Soon an innocent will be beaten to death or skinned alive
Shot for his spotted skin or magnificent tusks
Makes no difference if they are endangered or threatened
Tied behind a car, a rope dragging the victim until skin and limbs fall apart
This innocent's life soon to be dead or crippled for life

The farm an industrial factory where the innocent are machines
Confined for life to make eggs, milk, bacon or meat on your plate
Their body parts cannot sustain such unnatural and abusive ways
Fed antibiotics, hormones, submitted to artificial insemination
Until their bodies produce no longer
Fed other innocents' body parts - that's not their fare
Unable to turn, roam freely, spread those wings
What man wants is the innocents' flesh
Convenient names to forget the source of your food
You call it pork, veal, steak, bacon, ribs, sausage, paté
These were cows, pigs, birds, calves
Not one volunteered to be on your plate

The poor innocent whose lives are behind bars
You find them in zoos, laboratories, circuses
Confined in aquariums, targets in rodeos
Forced to perform tricks for man's profit
Made to dance, skate; jump over fire - all abnormal
Behind the scenes they suffer and cry
We've done nothing but be of the non-human kind
We hear it's for education, research, conservation
For us, however, it's all misery - no exhilaration
They ask why is man so cruel?
We've done no crime - we are of the non-human kind

Deprived of my mother and siblings
I'm caged for research
I become the animal model
I know of needles, drugs, tests and diseases
My pain is physical, my suffering infinite
I'm caged until my death
Man has driven me insane
Is there no salvation?
No longer knowing my true self
Man has changed my behaviour
It's called medical or scientific research
My brothers and sisters call it medical fraud
These are the ways of the human kind

Trapped in jaws of steel
Being lured by some scent or food
This poor innocent awaits hours even days of hell
An agony too real with deep cries of pain
Sheer terror fills this innocent's soul
In desperation trying to free himself - herself
From man's sheer greed and barbaric forms
Until the man called trapper retrieves his prey
The poor innocent an easy and defenseless prey
Maybe frozen to death
Or even having bled to death
The few who escape are crippled - with what fate?
If alive, soon the innocent will know a tragic fate

The trapper sees only money out of his prey
Stomped, broken necks, stabbed
Ways the trapper exterminates his prey
Dead skin will adorn someone's body - tragic vanity
That fur belonged to our brothers and sisters
A beautiful creature - an innocent victim
Many innocent fall prey to man's destructive ways
Behind are left untold orphans whose fate is eliminated
Without their mamma and papa
They have no one to take care of them
Killed were also the bothers and sisters
Families executed under the jaws of steel
These creatures subjects of man's slaughter

The magnificent creature once full of life
That innocent creature having been born out of man's circle
Dictated how man sees and treats the most innocent
For it is man who thinks he's the greatest creature
Giving him rights to abuse, destroy and kill the most innocent
What fate awaits the most innocent?
When man ill-treats and betrays his own kind
If only man would open his eyes and heart
To the wonders and magnificence of the most innocent
So much to learn from these majestic creatures
They all have a purpose and right to be here
The furry, the scaly, the feathery - all creatures
They are our brothers and sisters.


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