For Animals.

This heart-wrenching poem was written by Aylam Orian and has been presented at multiple National Animal Rights Day events to commemorate all the innocent animals who die at the hands of humans.

The introduction below is adapted from that in a YouTube video of the 2015 NARD event in North America, for the 2022 event in Aotearoa.

“We call them animals

Treat them as separate, inferior, unimportant, negligible, usable objects

Every minute of every day we cage, mutilate and kill thousands of animals in Aotearoa alone.

On this day once a year we will stop everything else and give our full attention to the most marginalised, most abused and most oppressed group on our planet – Other Animals.”

YOU ARE NOT ALONE ~ By Aylam Orian

Deep in that dark filthy cage

Trembling in cold and fear

Slammed against that metal truck

Crammed with all your peers

Walking in that narrow corridor

With shouts behind the door

Facing the bodies of your friends

On the killing floor.

Even in those moments we wanted you to know

That we see you, we hear you, we feel you, we love you

That you are not alone.

They took you from your family

And stuck you in a testing place

They snatched you from your mommy

Before she touched your face

They sent you to the circus ring

To amuse the laughing crowds

They stripped you of your hair and skin

And threw you on the ground.

But even in these moments

We wanted you to know

That we see you, we hear you, we feel you, we love you

That you are not alone.

One day on this ravaged earth

When blood and tears subside

Everything will be so calm

And green from side to side

Animals like me and you

Will share this place in peace

And there will be no suffering

Just joy and love and ease.

But until that day is here

We’ll meet on the rainbow bridge

Where there will be no difference

Between a man a cow and pig

We’ll hug and kiss and play all day

Just like children do

And then we will apologise

For what we did to you.

And even in these moments we wanted you to know

That we see you, we hear you, we feel you, we love you that you are not alone.

You are not alone even when you are gone.

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