This incredibly powerful slam poem was written by Gary Yourofsky in 1996 and is finally reaching the public in video form. Gary calls for us to face the reality of our actions both as a collective society and as individuals.
Gary Yourofsky is no stranger to powerful words. But in today’s video post you will hear him in a way you never have before in all of his talks and interviews. Gary wrote a spoken word piece in 1996 about the atrocities we inflict upon animals every single day- about the horrors they experience. And now, 19 year later, I have the distinct pleasure of bringing his words to life in a video. I am humbled and honored. I hope you listen and watch and give these animals their voice.
Here is Gary’s poem in full. But I strongly encourage you to listen to his delivery. tweet this poem
Note: this video does contain graphic footage mirroring Gary’s words—if you’d prefer a non-graphic version of this poem, please see this post.
The videos I’ve seen
Heinous and malicious
Images of carnage
Evil and wicked
Abattoirs of horror
Slashed throats and severed bodies
Dismembered heads and hooves
Mass killings so ungodly
The fur electrocutions
Anal and genital
Gassings and neck-breakings
The scenes are unfathomable
Baby seals being clubbed
For their skins we shall beat them
Foxes in steel traps
A leg chewed off for freedom
Is it elegant and glamorous
A death sentence for their beauty
Or repugnant and loathsome
That’s injustice and iniquity
A cow ovariectomy
Without anesthetic
A pig being scorched
Burn research is pathetic
Toxicity tests in a rabbit’s eyes
A circus elephant is beaten
In chains he cries
A mouse convulsing from a lethal injection
A live cat embalmed and used for dissection
Our compassion, unfocused
In a skewed direction
Medical research need not vivisection
A baboon dazed in a head injury lab
Researchers remorseless
Three of them laugh
It’s the humans, the humans
Most horrifying of all
Blinded by their actions
Deafened to the calls
The reprehensible acts
Which I will never forget
The sinful atrocities on God’s pets
It’s not inconvenient
To care is magnanimous
To save a life is honorable
To issue death is blasphemous
I cannot and will not stand by without choice
I’ll decipher their cries and be their voice
— Gary Yourofsky
In creating the video for this piece, I poured through hours of brutal footage. This project has shaken me to my core—as so many do. I certainly hope it has reached you as well. Please share this post around to spread the truth and give a voice to the so often ignored animal victims.
— Emily Moran Barwick
Subscribe via Telegram
Powerful. “It not inconvient/ To care….” I like that one most.
Is possible if I translate this to Spanish? I’m from Mexico and I think this is worth sharing material
Elba, thank you for asking. you can for sure- you can actually add the Spanish captions to the video directly here: https://amara.org/v/GIP3/ and it will link to the channel automatically!
A powerful poem by Gary. We can not turn away from graphic videos or from strong words that describe the horrors animals suffer just so people can eat them.
Children and adults must learn that “hamburgers do not grow in hamburger patches and love to be eaten”.
I will never see the whole world vegan in my lifetime. It will happen but it will take centuries more. H.G. Wells wrote of this kind of future in Utopia when humans will look back with disgust that a one time humans ate other beings.