Leona Lewis: An Animal Welfare Ambassador

It is widely reported today that former reality tv show winner Leona Lewis (X-Factor) has turned down a £1m offer to open Harrods department store’s annual sale. The star, who is well known to support animal welfare issues, is unhappy that the giant London department store sells real fur products.

An admirable stance to take from Ms Lewis.

Which got me to thinking, would I do the same?

I love animals. But a million pounds? Would it REALLY hurt my career THAT much to take the money and open the store? It’s not like I’m being asked to go seal clubbing or open up a puppy farm?

And that’s quite worrying. I probably would consider pocketing that cash, there I said it. I didn’t say I WOULD, I just said I’d consider it.

But - and here’s the rub - what about if I was being asked to profit more directly from animal suffering? See, I could easily try and justify to myself that I could open the sale, knowing about the fur products, but then I could use that cash to work on animal welfare initiatives couldn’t I? See how easy it is to justify it? But what about if it becomes less easier to justify, more closely linked to the actual suffering?

Would I consider the offer as much if I WAS asked to rear the animals who were to be skinned? Probably not. Or, would I open a puppy farm (and run it like a ‘traditional’ puppy farmer i.e. without due consideration for the welfare of the dogs) for a million quid? Well, no. I wouldn’t. I genuinely wouldn’t. I wouldn’t do it for £1m or £10m. Yet I’d still consider opening that Harrods sale, so what does that say about me?

Well firstly it says I obviously have to congratulate Ms Lewis. And maybe I can learn from her too. Just because the abuse is not directly under my nose. Just because the abuse is not directly carried out by me. Just because the abuse is not something I can physically see and hear first hand with my own eyes and ears, doesn’t mean I don’t KNOW that there IS abuse somewhere down the line. And it doesn’t make me ANY better AT ALL if I’m involved in that chain.

There are many animal welfare abuses that are happening all around us. Some of them almost become ‘normal’ and we ignore them. Think about how many grossly overweight dogs we see, how many obviously disabled / deformed dogs we come across or how many dog owners we meet who make it clear to us they haven’t got the first clue about properly caring for the animal(s) in their possession. As a general rule we ignore them. After all, if we see someone smacking a dog with a stick we’re likely to act - it’s direct, it’s obvious, it offends us. But what about someone who’s feeding their dog in to an early grave? Why is one abuse any less than the other?

I don’t have a particular point to make with this post. I just wanted to congratulate Leona Lewis for having more moral fibre than I and to think out loud about whether we could perhaps do more to ensure we are not indirectly contributing to serious abuse of animals. We should know the difference between what’s right and wrong. What’s healthy and what’s unhealthy. So we really ought to think more about whether we are part of the solution or indirectly contributing to the problem.

Author Details
Ryan O'Meara is editor-in-chief of K9 Magazine, the lifestyle magazine for dog lovers. He lives in the East Midlands with his own two dogs, Mia and Chloe. - See this author's webpage

Popularity: 10% [?]