Laura Gonzalo es una activista que, para ayudar a los animales, ha decidido estudiar la carrera universitaria que más vínculos tiene con la explotación animal: veterinaria. Esperamos que cada vez haya más estudiantes como ella.
What happened in your life that made you become interested in the topic of animal respect?
For many years I lived fully integrated with speciesism. I believed I respected other animals because I never "mistreated" any of them, I felt affinity and peace in their presence, I hated bullfighting, and I couldn't stand explicit violence. However, it seemed perfectly normal to me to eat their bodies or wear leather made from their skin. The normalization of animal oppression is overwhelming. It was other people who had already grasped the reality who opened my eyes. I remember the exact moment I became vegan: it wasn't with bloody images of slaughterhouses, but quite the opposite. I was watching a beautiful video of a sanctuary featuring several inhabitants of different species, and the staff were talking about them. Suddenly, I realized something very obvious, but which had escaped my notice until then: that, just as each of my dogs and cats has a different personality, so did those pigs, cows, and chickens. I had spent my entire life objectifying other animals and thinking of them as a whole: pigs, cows, and chickens, without considering that each individual is unique and irreplaceable, and therefore every life counts and every life taken is a tragedy. Then the full horror of the animal holocaust that has been going on for millennia fell upon me, and I knew that I was going to dedicate the rest of my life to making it visible and fighting it.
What vision of animals is conveyed at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine?
Veterinary medicine, as it stands today, is the science of exploiting animals. It's not limited exclusively to medicine; a significant portion of the academic curriculum is dedicated to so-called "farm animals." One of the veterinarians' jobs is to guarantee the hygiene and quality of animal products, and the way these animals are studied is appalling. We learn things like, for example, the ideal age to slaughter a baby so that the product has the best quality. We use concepts like "carcass yield," which is a very cold and clinical way of expressing a very cruel reality: how much meat is produced from the body of an individual.
We study different breeds and ways to "improve" them to suit our tastes and needs. We classify animals by their aptitudes, always in service to humankind. In short, animals are mere objects of production that we manage to obtain a profit from them.
Animal welfare is discussed in some subjects. It's true: methods are taught to minimize animal suffering during transport to the slaughterhouse and during slaughter, and thanks to the presence of veterinarians in slaughterhouses, death is less agonizing. But it's always presented from a purely welfare-oriented perspective, which serves to justify the exploitation of other beings while maintaining a clear conscience.
A few months ago, the director of the Complutense Veterinary Teaching Hospital lamented in an interview that Carmen, a cow living at the Wings of Heart Sanctuary, had not been euthanized. In her words, “The same procedure has not been followed as with the rest of the livestock in Spain.This woman, like many others, is incapable of conceiving that a cow is anything other than "livestock." No one in their right mind would say that a human being infected with Ebola should have been sacrificed, for example, despite the severity of the disease. But if these same criteria are applied to a non-human animal, you are accused of demagoguery. What's the difference? The answer is always the same poorly thought-out and even less justified phrase: "You can't compare an animal to a person."
Do you think the faculty could do without the use of animals?
Not entirely. It will always be necessary to study real animals to learn, just as no human surgeon operates on anyone without having done extensive prior practice on cadavers. But in human medicine, no one is killed to experiment on their body; instead, donated cadavers are used.
At the university, we conduct practical exercises with animals and viscera from slaughterhouses. If we didn't have access to these remains to learn their anatomy, as would be ideal (if only there were no slaughterhouses!), we would have to work with donated cadavers, as is done in Human Medicine, or acquire synthetic and digital models. It would be desirable for Veterinary Medicine to apply the same procedures and values as Human Medicine.
"Laboratory" animals are also used for various experiments, and Beagle dogs are kept for training purposes. This should stop completely. The global trend is to reduce animal testing and gradually replace it with other alternatives. But this requires political will and, above all, a financial investment that many are unwilling to make.
How do the students at the faculty view animals?
There's a bit of everything. Anti-speciesism is still uncommon, and there are only a few vegans in the faculty. There are also people at the opposite extreme: bullfighting fans, people from livestock farming families, people from the equestrian world… Perhaps the most common profile is that of someone who feels a certain affinity for animals (especially so-called "companion" animals), with a welfare-oriented approach, but who hasn't looked beyond that. The worst part is that the information they receive in the classroom only reinforces the normalization of this brutal speciesism. That's why it's so important to be an activist within the university itself, to offer future veterinarians critical tools with which to defend themselves against the official supremacist stance and practice the profession in a more ethical and responsible way.
You were the spokesperson for the massive demonstration that took place on May 13th in Madrid against bullfighting. How did you achieve such a successful turnout?
The success of the March 13th demonstration stems from one obvious reason: the majority of Spanish society rejects bullfighting. Between 2007 and 2015, bullfights in arenas decreased by 52.2%, and even the major festivals are closing their books with significant financial losses. Public support has fallen in the last three years from 30% to 19%. According to official data from the Ministry of Culture, in 2015 only 6.9% of the population attended a bullfight. More and more people are ashamed that such a practice, which consists of torturing an animal for the entertainment of the masses, is considered a national tradition. Bullfighting's days are numbered, and the demonstrations are only going to grow larger.
You're also the spokesperson for Gladiators for Peace. Why do you think it's important to collaborate with this group?
Gladiators for Peace is a group that, in a very short time and with very limited resources, has managed to bring the issue of animal abuse to the forefront of public attention on numerous occasions and in top-tier media outlets. We promote veganism and denounce all forms of violence and injustice against animals of any species, including humans, and in this spirit we also carry out social action, such as the vegan dinners we provide every Monday to the homeless in Madrid.
A significant part of Gladiadores' work focuses on the fight against bullfighting and animal-related festivities. We believe that society is more than evolved enough to accept the abolition of spectacles in which other beings are tortured and killed for pure entertainment.
Behind these practices, as with carnism and any form of animal oppression, lies the powerful root of speciesism. We know that the ultimate goal is the abolition of all forms of slavery, but we are also aware that it is a marathon, not a sprint, in which strategic milestones must be achieved. Revolutions don't happen overnight, and every advance in animal welfare contributes to creating the appropriate breeding ground for the definitive paradigm shift.