Randi Sokol: Sickening images as a way of cultivating discussion

Passers-by of PETA's highly controversial "Holocaust on Your Plate" demonstration could not help but be shocked and horrified by the grotesque images they saw. The display featuring eight-foot panels of stomach-churning images reveals the disturbing similarity between treatment of Jews during the Holocaust and that of animals raised for food on modern-day factory farms.

While most of the people I encountered were quite upset and angry about the comparison, I cannot help but hope the display will do more than foster hostility.

Yes, the display is quite controversial, and the images are quite sickening. But it is these types of images that I hope will cultivate an important type of conversation that should be discussed.

Let me clear up some misconceptions about PETA's display.

First, this display is not anti-Semitic by any stretch of the imagination. It was actually modeled after Jewish Nobel Laureate Isaac Beshevis Singer's belief that "to animals, all people are Nazis. For them, it is an eternal Treblinka." After Singer lost most of his family in the Holocaust, he became a vegetarian and spoke out in favor of vegetarianism until his death in 1991, recognizing the common atrocities and cruelties between what his family members suffered and what animals go through every day.

The project is also funded by a Jewish philanthropist who spent 25 years working with prominent Jewish organizations to highlight the violence that took place during the Holocaust. Additionally, numerous Holocaust survivors and their families have endorsed the campaign seeing it not only as appropriate but necessary to learn from the Holocaust and apply the lessons to help the weakest among us today: the animals.

Secondly, the display is not intended to compare people to animals, for they are obviously two distinct organisms with different abilities and intelligent levels; instead, the display is intended to compare the treatment of both living beings, for like humans, animals have the capacity to suffer, feel pain and hurt. And, like humans, they have the right to be protected from such cruelty.

Like the 1.6 million human beings that were murdered in four years at Auschwitz, 28 billion animals are murdered every year. The conditions they endure are quite similar to those that persisted during the Holocaust, as animals are crammed into tiny cages unable to move a leg or arm, trucked through all weather conditions as they are taken to the slaughterhouse, starved to death and strung upside down and slaughtered without the use of anesthetics.

What's more striking to me is not the conditions endured by both victims but rather, the mindset that has allowed these conditions to prevail. The same type of apathy and indifference that allowed Jews, homosexuals and the mentally-challenged to be trucked to their deaths is the same type of mindset that is presently displayed toward animals. The idea that just because animals are different from us means that they are unworthy of life and shouldn't be considered as living, breathing, sentient beings is absolutely absurd. This is the same mindset that allowed the Holocaust to happen.

Finally, I have a feeling that no matter what I say to properly justify the display as an appropriate comparison, there will be many who disagree with me and find offense to the display. I do not doubt that I have made enemies by inviting PETA to come to Penn. I anticipated such reaction. However, anger and shock are not ends in themselves. Often, highly controversial issues are needed to spark necessary thought and change that might have not otherwise been had.

Initially, when Matt Prescott created this display for PETA, his mother, a relative of Holocaust victims, was disturbed and angered. She later became a vegetarian. Others have had similar experiences. Our first responses to situations do not always produce the results we expect.

Hopefully, the display will inspire people to think about the treatment of the animal on their plate the next time they sit down to eat. Hopefully, people will see the same oppression, prejudice and cruelty that exists today as it did half a century ago. The goal of this campaign is to extend compassion to every living, feeling and thinking being and to fight injustice wherever it may lurk.

The best way to stop the Holocaust of the animals is to adopt a healthy vegetarian diet. Visit go goveg.com for free vegetarian recipes and tips.

Also, for more in-depth comparisons between the Holocaust and the way we treat animals, visit www.masskilling.com or read Charles Patterson's book Eternal Treblinka.

Randi Sokol is a junior Biology major from Watkinsville, Ga.

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