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Queen guitarist Brian May has opened up about his commitment to veganism and animal welfare, questioning why humans consider themselves more important than other species.
Speaking with Samuel Goldsmith on the UK’s Good Food Podcast, the legendary musician discussed the experiences that shaped his views on animal rights and explained why he believes every living creature deserves consideration.
I’m definitely committed to trying to decrease the suffering of animals, ’cause I think every animal matters — not just species, not just numbers, but every single creature matters. And you probably know we have a wildlife rescue. We just rescued a couple of toads from the drains who couldn’t get out, and that gives me great pleasure. And Anne Brummer, who runs my Save Me wildlife rescue, has rescued literally thousands of animals over the years we’ve been involved together, and that makes me very happy. And whatever you can do.
And that’s wild animals — it’s foxes and badgers, deer, many, many kinds of birds, hedgehogs. And we do that. We do intermediate level outreach to people, trying to educate people about wild animals and what they need and how we’re destroying their habitats, et cetera. And we do top-level lobbying with [the U.K.] government and the Houses of Parliament just to try and change the laws that potentially can protect wild animals from exploitation and abuse.
When asked if he has always loved animals or if there was a particular moment that inspired him to go vegan, May gave this response.
I’ve always been an animal lover, yeah. There are certain moments in your life — aren’t there? I don’t know how you feel about it — which change your feelings. I do remember being scared of things that buzzed, like bees and wasps and everything. And in those days, my mom used to have a thing called a FLIT gun, which I suppose was DDT [dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane] in a can, and you pumped it and pumped it and pumped it. It was a spray. And I remember in the understairs cupboard, suddenly there was this huge insect, which I suppose was a… I don’t know if it was a wasp or… I think it was a wasp, but it was big, and I felt really threatened by it. I was only young.
I was only probably eight or nine or whatever, and the FLIT gun was there, so I picked up the FLIT gun and started kind of firing it at it, like defending myself. And I watched it buzz and buzz and fall to the ground and buzz and buzz and buzz and buzz and buzz and buzz. And I watched it in what seemed like agony, and it absolutely killed me. I thought, ‘I’ve done this. Why have I destroyed this animal?’ Because I was afraid of it. That stuck with me for a long time, and I wouldn’t touch any of those sprays ever again. There’s a number of incidents, I think, which made me realize that animals are just like us.
David Attenborough [English broadcaster, naturalist and writer] was quoted quite recently as saying, ‘Why is it we have the arrogance to think that the human race, that humans are the only significant animal on the planet? Why do we think we’re more important than all the other animals?’ There’s no basis for that. I mean, I’ve said very often, if an alien came to Earth and looked at all the different animals, creatures on Earth, they wouldn’t necessarily come to the conclusion that humans were the best and the most worthy of preserving. We’ve done a lot of damage, and we still do a lot of damage, and I’m not convinced that we do a very good job as a species. So why do we assume all the other species are there for our exploitation? It’s not a logical assumption. To me, it’s self-evident that every animal matters.
We’re not aware enough yet of how much we need to look after not just the planet, but the wild animals that live on it, all the animals that live on it. And we are all wild animals, basically. I mean, how do you feel when you go out in the country, in the trees or the grass and everything? You think, ‘Oh, my God, this is where I belong.’ And you do belong. We don’t belong in this concrete stuff that we’ve manufactured for ourselves. We are wild animals.
