Ricky Gervais has spoken out against animal cruelty for years, and he has a very clear message for trophy hunters.
Speaking to the Daily Mirror the comedian let rip as he contemplated what could drive someone to kill animals only for sport.
And the topic of taking selfies with the carcasses was even more troubling, with Gervais questioning the mental state of those who take such photos.
He said:
Imagine if a vet said, ‘I’m going to put down your cat now. Can I do it with a bow and arrow, and then have a selfie for Facebook?’
You’d go, ‘No, you’re a f***ing psychopath’.
A somewhat poignant example considering the vet who did precisely that to her neighbour’s cat, except she didn’t ask…
He continued:
I’m anti-hunter. There’s no need for it.
I’m anti-people who go out and see what they can do with a crossbow and a giraffe’s head, because there’s something wrong with them.
Why the selfie? I don’t get annoyed about a lion eating an antelope because that’s what it does, but what they don’t do is eat an antelope – for a laugh – and then take a selfie with it, and try and get their own shop.
Ricky is himself a former meat eater, but he concedes progress on a global scale will not be overnight, and it’s important to prioritise the right battles.
He said on the topic of dogs:
It’s about torture. They skin them alive and blowtorch them because they think the meat tastes better.
Now, I don’t care whether you’re a meat eater or not – that’s psychopathic. Nobody needs their meat to be tortured first – no militant steak eater wants to know you tortured the cow first, so these are f***ing crazy people.
I’d rather nobody ate any animal, but let’s do it in the right order, because you’ll get a backlash.
He added:
You’ve got to do it gradually. I don’t come out and say, ‘stop eating meat altogether, no one should ever eat meat, if you ever eat meat or drink milk, you’re a maniac, you’re terrible, you’re a murderer.’ If I do, I’ll lose 80% of people.
I say, ‘let’s stop mindless torture first – things like bullfighting’. It takes a long time, it’s a juggernaut.
He makes a lot of damn good points.
