It's easy to understand the suffering of caged pigs, cows separated from their calves, or sheep in slaughterhouses. But we tend to consider the lives of animals in the wild idyllic. In the classroom, we explain relationships within the ecosystem without expressing feelings: "The lion preys on the zebra." There's no mention of the suffering that may lie behind it. Even if we use a nature documentary showing the most horrific images of predation, we still ignore the fact that there's an animal suffering and that it will never again be able to enjoy any positive experience. If a student makes an empathetic comment toward the victim, the response will be, "That's what happens in nature." Just because it happens in nature doesn't mean that those who suffer don't deserve empathy. Humans also experience many natural deaths (mainly from disease and hunger) and we recognize the pain behind them.
This idealized view of freedom that we transmit in the classroom extends to situations where humans are directly responsible. When we talk about ecosystem destruction, we tend to value the environment itself, without considering that for many animals, this means losing their home and their lives. Behind environmental destruction lie countless stories of fish that have died from poisoning, wolves that can no longer find forests, and gas pipelines that cut off the migratory routes of bison.
The direct and intentional killings caused by hunters are still accepted by a significant and influential part of society. "Hunting is important for the good of the ecosystem." We forget, once again, that killing an animal means taking away everything it has, its life. And we avoid thinking that the species doing the most damage to the planet is our own. Sometimes, children are simply taught that killing wild animals is fun. They don't bother to question it.
It's fine to teach a child how to shoot an animal, but with a camera. Few activities can be as enriching as taking a child to feed ducks and talking about them as individuals, birdwatching walks, or going to see deer in the wild on an autumn morning. But in our society, the term "trophy" is still used to describe a wild animal that has been shot and killed, when the true trophy is seeing it in its natural habitat.
We don't even mention fish, crustaceans, or mollusks. We don't talk about the number of fish we kill annually, but about the tons harvested. They aren't considered living beings, but products. Their facial expressions are inexpressive, we don't hear their cries, and they live in a very different environment from our own. All of this makes it even harder to develop empathy towards tuna, anchovies, trout, shrimp, lobsters, crabs, cuttlefish, or octopuses, even though some of them are cooked alive in our own kitchens.
These issues are often overlooked in schools and at home. Visits to zoos or even circuses with animals are not uncommon. It's also not unusual for people to grow up with a caged bird in their kitchen throughout their lives. We find it more comfortable to see animals in our homes than to see them free in their own. The fact that this means caging them for life doesn't seem to matter much, nor does the message conveyed to children.