When we try to raise society's awareness of the plight of animals, we often resort to the astronomical numbers of victims of speciesism. For example, we know that every year in the world, 25 billion land animals (such as cows, pigs, chickens and sheep) and hundreds of billions of marine animals (such as fish, crustaceans and cephalopods) could die as victims of exploitation for human consumption. Also, hard-to-imagine numbers of wild animals suffer, victims of accidents or diseases without any kind of help.

This information is indispensable to know the magnitude of the discrimination suffered by animals, but perhaps it is difficult to get an idea of the seriousness of the problem for each individual as a sentient being, when we mention similar quantities¹.
This is why some people and organizations focus their attention on specific individuals, so that the public can connect with their emotions². This is a way to help us put ourselves in the place of that animal we see suffering before our eyes, to understand that it has needs and desires, in short, that he can suffer and enjoy. From this connection with his emotions we could be in a better position to ask ourselves why we allow him to suffer in such a way, and thus question our attitude towards other animals in general.

Photographer Bel Gonzalez shares with us something that everyone should know, the last moments of those animals driven to the slaughterhouse. The last moments of animals that did not want to die.

Helena Rivera (AV editorial team)

¹This is due to the cognitive bias known as scope neglect.
²This is the mental process of empathy, facilitated by mirror neurons.