My amazing speech

Throughout history we have seen the discrimination between the different races, genders, and now species. Those who have the power, use it dominate over the less powerful, and allow the interests of their own race, gender, or specie to override those of another race, gender, or specie. Animals, although they aren't the same as humans in all aspects, are still just as much alive. They have the desires for food and water, just as we do, shelter and companionship, freedom of movement, just like us humans, and lastly the avoidance of pain. Animals are just as aware of the Earth as we are, and they stand alike human beings, but yet the principal of equality continues to be violated.
There are three categories in which animals give their freedom, and in most cases their lives, to better the lives of humans. This is the breeding of animals for pets, and the torturing of animals for food, clothing, entertainment, and scientific research. However these sacrifices continue to go unacknowledged.
For centuries, dogs have proved to be man's best friend. Local animal shelters, pet stores, and breeders never fail to provide us with our loyal companions, but have you ever thought about where these millions of puppies and kittens are coming from? Many of the animals sold in the pet stores, and even those from legitimate looking breeder websites, come from puppy mills.
Puppy mills breed millions of puppies a year in filthy, overcrowded, wire cages, crammed inside dark, dirty structures, with little to no fresh air. These constrained structure infect these new born puppies with behavioral problems, musculoskeletal disorders, mange, fleas, ticks, and more seriously heart and kidney diseases, epilepsy, and deafness.This cycle continues until the mother becomes too weak to labor anymore puppies, and what happens to these weak, now useless, animals? Well, they are killed of course because after all, it's all about the profit. Therefore, most of these animals are given the most inhumane deaths. For example, there are the gas chambers. Tossed and crammed into small metal confinements, only to suffer and writhe through a long twenty minutes to their death. The more puppies and dogs fit into these chambers each time reduces the money spent, which leads to mass amounts of dogs dying of suffocation before even being affected by the gas. Puppy mill owners see the lives of these animals as nothing but a profit. These animals sacrifice their lives, so that we can have timid and infected puppies. Does that sound ethical to you?
And the process doesn't stop at puppy mills. Where do the millions of dogs turned into these animal shelters come from? Well, 25 million animals are left homeless each year, wandering the streets looking for food, water, and shelter. The luckiest of these animals find their to way to local animal shelters, where they are given veterinarian attention, food, and water, but a devastating 9 million die as strays on the street, whether the cause be disease, starvation, injury, or exposure to the intense heat or cold. Even those lucky enough to make it to these shelters, have a slim chance of survival. 16 million animals are euthanized each year, due to the lack of space or food. Although euthanasia is the most humane way to kill, it is not the most affordable and therefore many turn to the use of gas chambers. Millions of dogs are giving their lives to be our loyal companions, and yet we put them through countless labors, only to gas the over looked puppies at the shelter. These numbers would be drastically reduced if more people spayed and neutered their pets, but many breeding, pet owning males find that it is emasculating. So.. it is more masculine knowing that because of you, many animals a year are dying on the streets, euthanized, or even gassed? Do we humans really feel more powerful and dominating knowing that we are hurting something that can't even defend itself? Is that even power? Animals only want the same as we do, food, water, companions, and shelter. Is that too much to ask considering we are the ones causing the problem?
We humans also take advantage of our dominance over animals when it comes to the production of our food. The thought of how our food makes it to our table is completely overlooked. Just as Thomas Gray wrote, ignorance is bliss. It is no surprise that most Americans would want to remain in the dark, due to the fact that these animals are shot numerous times in the head with bolt guns, have their throats slit, teeth cut, ears clipped, and ultimately result to cannibalism. Cows and pigs arrive in mass amounts, in crammed, disease filled, trucks to the slaughter houses. To end all brain functions, and put the animals out of his or her misery, a bolt is shot through their brain with a bolt gun. Not so surprisingly, most of the time, the bolts miss the brain completely, only inflicting unnecessary pain on these poor malnutrition animals. Why even spend another few seconds to carelessly try a second time? Don't worry, they don't. Next, these animals are hung from their hind legs, their throats are slit, and their blood gushes to the floor. Still, some still are not dead as they squirm to free themselves as the approach the broiler. We wouldn't want any hair on our hamburgers would we? Yes, there are those lucky few that happen to die of a disease before being put through this torture, but well, they will be a part of that so called meat in a hamburger from the nearest McDonald's. That sounds healthy. So why is it that these animals deserve a cruel inhumane death, just so we can eat their tainted meat? They should be given an actual burial considering they are what keeps us alive. We humans feels as though we are entitled to this cruel torture because we are stronger, and the animals don't fight back, but without these animals, we wouldn't be here. We owe them equality and end to this torture.
Although the torturous killing for food is okay in the eyes of some people, why should the tortuous killing for entertainment be okay? Inflicting pain for a sport is a sign, and furthermore taking enjoyment in watching, is a sign of psychological issues, but yet we can all say we have taken a part in this. Have we not all been to the circus or a zoo? Or even watched a bull fight or bull riders at rodeos at least on TV? Some of us might have ever heard of the sport that involves killing baby seals by repeatedly hitting them over the head with a bat. A circus, or the zoo, you might think are humane organizations that don't harm animals, but these wild animals are being removed from their habitats and forced to live in relatively small cages. They should have the freedom of movement just as we do. Yes, circus' claim to not physically harm their animals, but what would compel these animals to want to jump through fire? Fear. Elephants are beat with metal rods until they understand what is being yelled at them, but animals aren't humans. It is the equivalent of Americans being beat and yelled at in a foreign language to jump through a flaming hoop, and yet this sounds differently, wouldn't you agree? Thinking of a tiger, being taken from the wild, to perform in the circus seems perfectly normal because that is what we have become accustomed to. The equality between humans and animals means nothing to us. Entertainment and pleasure have a strong hold over us, and cause us to over look the rights of animals for our own benefits.
Now that light has been shone on the horrific torture and pain we put animals through, we can not blame our ignorance on our decisions to remain as bystanders to this cruelty. I ask you to join me in putting an end to this torture. We both are alive, and after all, whether it's a human or animal, pain is pain, and animals do suffer.