If slaughter houses had glass walls… With the power of social media, they do.

As an animal lover I find it increasingly difficult not to get depressed. Whether it’s dogs being boiled and burnt alive at Yulin Dog Festival, people paying lots of money to shoot endangered animals with crossbows to decorate their home, or moves to bring back the utterly pointless fox hunting in the UK.

Where does it end? There are so many battles to fight.

I was one of millions of people recently outraged by the death of Cecil the lion. As I am sure you are aware, he was shot with a crossbow by an American dentist Walter Palmer who paid the equivalent of around £35,000 to hang his severed head on his wall. Yet, this trophy didn’t bring him the glory he was chasing. Instead, the story went viral and raged furiously across the internet.

Unfortunately, animals are murdered by poachers all the time in Africa, and across the world. From the African Rhino, to the whales in our oceans, to the Orangutans in Borneo and Sumatra, animals are at critical risk of extinction.

Such cruelty has been going on for a hell of a long time, and will continue to. Is cruelty on the rise? I don’t know, but I do know that I hear more about it every day.

When Cecil was killed, millions shared their despair on social media. Celebrities condemned Walter Palmer in their dozens. Now Walter Palmer’s life is tatters. Protests outside his home and surgery have forced him in to hiding. Whilst some hunters have since come out seeking fame like sadistic serial killers, I hope this may put other hunters off.

When the UK government tried to bring back fox hunting quickly, despite 80% of the British public being against it, on Twitter, #keeptheban raged on and petitions attracted hundreds of thousands of signatures. This undoubtedly had an effect on the decision by the Scottish National Party to break tradition and vow to vote against the change to English Law. It also saw Conservative MP Johnny Mercer, changing his mind about his vote after a putting the question to the public.

Recently, I saw a video posted online and shared on my Facebook feed showing two cows in a slaughter house. The video shows no blood, but whether you are a meat eater or a vegetarian, the video is powerful. While one cow is killed, the other is obviously terrified and unsuccessfully tries to escape before it meets its inevitable fate. I shared the video and a meat-eater wrote underneath:

‘This is a powerful video. I eat a lot of meat and wouldn’t change it, but respect those who choose not to. I think children and people in general should see more things like this however, as it may let them respect more what sacrifice is made to let them eat. People don’t associate the packets on shelves for what they actually are.’

Paul McCartney famously once said ‘if slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian’. Well, with social media, now they do. Whilst as people we have become increasingly removed from our food, social media can help people realise the connection between the food on the plate, to the thinking and feeling animal that was killed. This might not turn the world veggie, but it might help people to think about what they are buying and make informed decisions.

Has animal cruelty got worse? I don’t know. But I do know that the more animal cruelty I see, the more campaigns I see and the more animal lovers I see.

The power of social media allows for more awareness and more routes to demand change. We have more knowledge of the animal atrocities across the world, and as Michael Foucault once said, knowledge is power.