How Save Ralph Shames Us All
By: Sondos Abdellatif
@SondosAbdellat2
I have a popular lipstick shade in my makeup closet. It’s my favorite shade, it took me a lot of time going from store to store to finally find it.
“I’ve found my perfect shade of red, finally!” I told my best friend when I first bought the lipstick.
I was the girl who believed that every girl had her own perfect red shade that only looked perfect on her. Wearing this lipstick made me feel so powerful.
I never stopped to think about all the things that had to happen for that lipstick to wind up in my makeup closet.
I always believed in animal rights, but chose to ignore which brands were testing on animals and which weren’t until Humane Society International released a short movie last week called Save Ralph.
The short film stars Ralph, a tester bunny who leads us through a day in his life as if he’s filming a documentary. He has a blind eye, several cuts and bruises, and even lost his whole family to animal testing; but he keeps saying it is okay. He is doing it for the humans.
It’s only four minutes long but I felt so small after watching it. That red shade that made me feel “powerful” was in fact the reason a bunny was tortured.
Going through my Facebook timeline afterwards, I scrolled through endless posts on the film that ranged from support for the cause of animal rights and protections to attempts at justifying the cruelty Ralph experienced.
Some made the argument that it is ethically okay to torture animals as long as it is for a “noble” cause like making cancer patients feel better about themselves with makeup.
Others made arguments such as, “God created animals so we can benefit from them”, “And we also slaughter animals to eat them, so the humane society’s argument is void”, and “It is not that big a deal, people are exaggerating”.
None of these arguments consider how these animals must feel. We shouldn’t call ourselves human if we cannot understand that other creatures feel … just like we feel.
All this goes to show the normalization of animals being mistreated for human gain. It is not only for vain reasons such as testing beauty products – it’s for our food as well.
Watching Save Ralph reminded me of another cause I feel strongly about – the endangerment of sea creatures.
Many of the companies that sell seafood products are responsible for the brutal killing of animals such as dolphins off the coast of Japan. These selfish actions are the reason dolphins are endangered now.
Despite the attempts to enact laws to protect these animals, companies are finding loopholes and continuing with their illegal actions.
Some are even using the ridiculous excuse that the dolphins are so greedy that they eat a lot of fish so there are none left for the fishermen.
As a diver, my heart aches for those dolphins and I wish I could help them in any way, but there’s only so much I have control over as one person.
As I reflected more and more on Save Ralph, I was left with one question — what should I do with that lipstick now? It is not only that one lipstick that is the cause of these transgressions against other species, I have a handful of products from other brands that were listed at the end of the film because they test their products on animals.
After taking many things into consideration, I knew what I should do with the makeup in my closet that has the name of the murderous brands on them. I have decided to donate my products’ value in money to help save Ralph and his friends.
I encourage you all to do the same.
Together, we can try to undo some of the injustices that these animals have already gone through, and raise awareness to make sure they never happen again.
