May

Apart from my Sikh artwork, this drawing is the most important piece that I have drawn. It was my second drawing in my series of artwork on animal cruelty and is titled 'End of the Road'.

Being a vegetarian my entire life, I have always found peoples disconnect and relationship with animals and meat very disturbing. I feel people just completely ignore how much suffering and trauma animals go through so that they can have a meal on their plate, except when they have an emotional connection to the animal like dogs, cats, horses, then they are horrified.

One aspect of the meat industry that is often overlooked is 'the transport' of animals, which is what this drawing is trying to convey. The bars across the drawing signify the bars you see on animal transport trucks. The conditions in which animals are transported to be slaughtered varies from country to country.

Some countries pack transport trucks to the maximum in horrific conditions without any regards for the animals suffering. Admittedly, in the west the conditions are not as bad, but ultimately the final destination of the trip is the same, which is for the animals to be slaughtered for human consumption. Hence the title 'End of the Road'.

This drawing is also one of my most surreal artwork, as I was trying to figure out how to portray the cow’s emotions, like fear and suffering. People tend to just ignore the fact that animals do feel fear, sadness and distress but do not always show it in a way that people can have empathy with. But I felt I could not portray it adequately just with the cows being transported looking frightened.

Unfortunately most people have got to the point that animals are just 'food' and so they have no emotional connection to them or their suffering. I also considered just having people looking fearful in cattle trucks, to represent the cows in human form, but that was just too heavy handed and the point I was trying to make would have been lost. So, I came up with the concept of having the person and the cows together in one drawing.

My goal was to create empathy with the cow by having the person representing the cow’s emotions in human form, such as fear, confusion and distress. I hoped that this would then bridge the disconnect that people have with the cows suffering but would instead convey the cows inner emotions which are lost on most people.

Also, as cows and other animals cannot verbalise their thoughts, I put the bar from the transport truck across the person’s mouth to symbolise that he and all other animals do not have a voice. If there is one thing I want people to do while looking at my artwork, it is to 'think' about what they are doing when buying or eating meat.

The amount of suffering that millions of animals go through on a daily basis for human consumption, in my opinion is one of the worst acts of evil.

This particular drawing has had the most impact on me. Prior to this drawing I had always been a vegetarian, but still consumed dairy products, as I did not really know the horrors of the dairy industry. But the research I had done into the dairy industry, really shocked me and so I made the decision to go vegan.

The journey to become a Vegan is very difficult, so I am not fully there yet, but my goal is to become total vegan soon.

Doing artwork on animal cruelty is difficult as it can make you feel hopeless and very angry. But I know that through my art I may be able to change people’s attitudes to eating meat.