The double standards of speciesism

THE term has been around since 1970, but I’ve only recently learned how to spell it. S-p-e-c-i-e-s-i-s-m. You know, assigning different values to different creatures depending on what species they belong to.

We do it without realising. Obviously, we have put our own species at the top of the heap, because we are the cleverest – and also the most dangerous and destructive, but we gloss over that.

So anyway – speciesism was massively in the news recently, not by name, but by the actions of certain members of the British royal family, and then by the reactions of everyone else. You’ll be aware that elephants are being illegally hunted for their ivory, and that they are now endangered. Like most people, Princes Charles and William think this is terrible, and have been making lots of noise about it. Save the elephant, they implore. Great. Who could argue with such an idea, other than the most monstrous ivory-coveter?