Artificial beauty
Once upon a time there lived a race of beastly creatures who dominated all other creatures in the land simply because they were more intelligent. Had the beastly creatures been kind-hearted and compassionate towards those creatures of lesser intellect, the land would have been peaceful and all could have lived together in harmony. Yet, the beastly creatures chose to exploit the other creatures and use them to benefit their race. Their horrible and cruel ways had led to distorted features and bony, gnarled and twisted bodies that mirrored the ugliness of their actions.
The beastly creatures' greed and longing for more power, more technology and a more comfortable life grew with each passing day. As it grew, the beastly creatures grew more narrow-minded and selfish - not to mention more ugly. They soon lost sight of the part they played in caring for the land in which they lived until, finally, they lost all feeling for the other, less intelligent creatures of the land.
The discoveries made by this race were mind-boggling and the rate at which they developed and adapted to the changes was astounding. However, all of these discoveries were made at a price, and that price was the dignity, the freedom, and in many cases even the lives of the other creatures of the land. Try as they might, the other creatures could not communicate their pain or anguish to the beastly creatures. Nor could they break free and move away to a different part of the land because the other creatures were without technology and the beastly creatures reigned supreme everywhere.
One day a discovery was made that would hide the ugliness of the beastly creatures. This discovery benefited them in no other way than making them more beautiful. Indeed they were made beautiful, but it was an unnatural beauty for which the other creatures suffered. The processes involved in the testing of this artificial beauty called for the other creatures of the land to suffer excruciating pain and eventually death.
On such test was executed on small creatures that were housed in stocks. These poor, innocent creatures had drops of the substances making up the artificial beauty placed in their eyes. The pain suffered was unbearable for the small creatures, and often tests resulted in severe ulceration, swelling and bleeding of the eye, causing much distress for the creature.
On these same small species of creatures, a test was carried out in which the substances were placed directly onto the skin. Immense pain ensued from this type of testing and the small creatures were left with red-raw skin and swelling. A third test performed on many species of creature aimed to establish a lethal dose. A group of creatures were administered varying amounts of a substance until half the group died. This death was by no means painless. On the contrary, it was a slow, agonising and extremely painful death drawn out over many, many days.
In all these tests, the creatures had no idea what was happening to them, and almost no test were carried out with pain-relieving substances. The beastly creatures felt no remorse at the needless deaths that they caused and continued in their murderous ways. The greatest shame was that the results from such testing were unreliable and therefore the tests were not needed. It was possible for the beastly creatures to create artificial beauty in another way, however they chose not to.
MORAL: Use power wisely and retain the respect that those weaker than you deserve. Animals too deserve respect. All creatures have a right to life.
Sarah Nesbitt, year 10, Kew VIC
This story comes from an unpublished collection of entries to our 1994 Poem and Story competition.
Animal Liberation SA holds the copyright to this work. Permission is granted to teachers to make copies for their own students.