sizeâ . . .)
You couldnât help feeling sorry for them. There they sat, squashed in so tight they couldnât stand. They couldnât stretch. They couldnât turn around. Their pale faces pressed up against the cage bars.
âWhatâs going to happen to us?â
âLet me out!â
âOooooh!â
âHelp us,
please
!â
Oh, it was pitiful. But they were one up on us poor chickens. They could at least argue with their jailors.
âWhy are you keeping us in here? Are you planning to
eat
us?â
ââFraid so.â
âBut thatâs
outrageous
.â
The little green man busy filling their water troughs was clearly a bit put out to hear this.
âWhatâs so outrageous about it? You taste
good
.â
âYou canât just eat us because we taste good!â
âWhy not?â
âBecause weâre
people
, thatâs why.â
The little green man shrugged.
âPigs. Chickens. People. Whatâs the difference?â
âPigs and chickens are only animals.â
âSo? Youâre only people.â
âBut weâre
superior
.â
âNot to me, Buster,â said the little green man. And scowling horribly, he left the shed. When he came back, he brought a mate with him, to give him a hand with the water troughs.
âThese people here,â he said, pointing to the inmates of the cages. âThey say theyâre superior.â
âNot to me, theyâre not,â his friend scoffed.
âThatâs what I told âem!â laughed the first little green man.
The people were rattling their cage bars in a fury.
âWe are! We are!â
âSuperior? Come off it!â The little green man lifted his hand and ticked his points off, one by one, on some of his willowy green fingers.
âHorses are stronger. Swans are more loyal. Chimps live more peaceably. Seahorses have more babies. Dogs follow a scent better. Giraffes are taller. Squids have better eyesight. Camels go longer without water. Jaguars run faster. And little green men know more languages.â
He had plenty of fingers left, but heâd got bored.
âI could go on and on,â he said, picking up the last bucket and tipping the water smoothly into the last trough. âIn fact, I could be quite rude, and say that the only thing you lot really had going for you was that you ran the whole planet.â
Just before he slammed the shed door behind him, he added as an afterthought:
âOh, yes! And you taste better than chicken!â
7
âNot today, thank you.â
âI wonât have the chicken, thank you,â Gemma said to the dinner lady. âNot today. Can I have what Vinit is having?â
The dinner lady made her usual joke.
âIf Vinit doesnât eat up his meat, he wonât grow.â
Vinit gave his usual polite chuckle. He was the tallest boy in the class, and had never eaten meat in his whole life. Today, Gemma and Andrew sat down on either side of him. Gemma seemed to havechicken on her mind, even if she had none on her plate.
âYouâve never eaten it
ever
?â
âNo.â
âWhat about lamb?â
âNo.â
âPork?â
âNo. We donât eat meat at all. No one in my family does. We never have.â
He watched as Gemma peeled open her sandwich hopefully, to see if the peanut butter was any thicker in the middle.
Across the table, Leila finished her mouthful and spoke up.
âMy mum says that if we didnât eat animals, there would soon be hardly any of them about.â
Simon looked round in surprise when he heard this.
âMy dad says if we didnât eat them, theyâd overrun us in no time.â
âThey canât both be right.â
âMaybe theyâre both wrong.â
The whole table fell quiet, thinking about people and animals. Whales. Dolphins. Elephants. Gorillas. Hard to believe that any animal in the world
Daven Hiskey, Today I Found Out.com