mock-up : persuasive speech on animal conservation
- Jade Teo
- Jan 29, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 31, 2021
It’s all our fault
Font Git Yu is an autistic 8-year-old boy. He has created a zine about wildlife because he dreams of saving endangered animals 1
Thank you for the warm reception. In truth, I don’t deserve your applause. The intention I have is simple. This is a confession, a reminder and an apology. We have something in common, you and I. And it’s for all our apathy, that I, Fong Git Yu, am here today.
(pause)
Have you ever played Jenga? 2
We build a tower and move the blocks. The game ends when the tower falls.
The animal kingdom is like that. The tower used to be standing steady and tall, each piece supporting one another. Now it sways, precarious and running the risk of toppling over. It watches helplessly every time humans, the metaphorical players, carelessly pull out a block.
Without much thought, eventually we’ll send the whole tower crashing down.
Which one of us wants to be the one who makes it fall?
(pause)
The propellation of the human juggernaut meant it would pass many different species along the way, trampling on them until they’re gone. And this juggernaut will continue to muscle his way through these animals and will hardly feel a thing under his boots.
The pangolin’s suit of armour is its greatest weakness.
The leatherback turtle sees a plastic bottle cap and mistakes it for food.
An elephant’s tusks are more valuable than her own life.
The skin of the snow leopard is so beautiful to be sliced off and used as a rug to be stepped on.
Each of these could go extinct before many people in this world realise it. So, what would be the reason society has moved on, accepting this as a way of life? For all our posturing, believing we are the only creatures on this planet that could question and understand what really matters, did we realise that a new mass extinction is underway?
And we are the ones to blame.
Animals can’t hire lawyers to argue on their behalf. So it falls on us to defend their rights. Their rights to co-exist alongside humans.
Plenty grandstand, crying over how these majestic creatures are driven to the brink, but few really know about it, or even care. These animals are invincible in the wild. Yet, they’re dying. Unnaturally.
So, let’s dispense with the naivety. Humans are the ones to be blamed.
And we will pay the cost.
We’ve failed… as the supposedly superior species.
We’ve failed… because our self-interest ranks higher than another life.
For our ignorance. For our selfishness. For our apathy. A kingdom will begin to fall.
(pause)
IGNORANCE
A species goes extinct and the world yawns.
This is how we as human beings react though we are the main cause. We have a shameful record of creating human-caused mass extinctions because of our blind ignorance. We do things for fun, like how we shot the humble passenger pigeon off the face of the Earth.
When the polar bear clings to the last vestige of ice before it sinks, will we blame Mother Nature or ourselves?
The laws we created to protect endangered animals has in itself been threatened. We allow gaps in the legislation and weak law enforcement. How far are bureaucrats going to push those boundaries?
Keeping species alive is not a one-size-fits-all approach. There are very specific and unique steps that have to be taken for each species’ survival.
We allow criminal groups to slaughter innocent creatures and letting them make their huge profits because they know the risk of punishment is low. We allow those loopholes to exist.
We choose to ignore what’s happening since it’s easier that way. It’s easier to turn a blind eye.
(pause)
GREED
You would pay a company to dig up oil but not rescue the giant panda. Capitalism is a driving force and everyone knows it.
Sharon Guynup, a journalist focusing on wildlife and environmental crime, has reported on the black-market trade for years. Pangolin scales, big-cat skins, rhino horn, live turtles, songbirds. In South America, Africa and Asia, especially China which treats these endangered species as luxury items.
They are living, breathing beings. Not a way to flaunt power and gain prestige.
And because of this they’re still under the enormous threat of either being caught alive or slaughtered, despite laws against poaching or trafficking.
(pause)
APATHY
I suppose it’s something we can understand. After all, animals don’t contribute to the community. The cost of saving one of their lives outweighs any possible benefits.
Then again, let me ask you:
Have you ever seen a majestic elephant mother hug her trunk around her baby?
Have you ever seen a pangolin roll up into a ball to protect itself?
With that in mind…
Have you ever seen a carcass of an elephant, dead and dirtied on the ground, with its tusks sawed off?
Have you ever seen a pangolin, stripped of its scales, nude and pink, floating in a jar?
(pause)
If these questions couldn’t elicit an emotional response from us, it clearly shows our lack of empathy.
All of these stories are linked by one thread: it’s all our fault.
And I want you to feel like it is. I want you to panic … and worry … and think.
Then I want you to act.
For those who speak for animals without a voice, I applaud you. I want to be like you.
“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” Confucius said that.
It’s a race against time. We need to change the way we are.
We need to start… now.
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