Animals, Environment and Climate

The difference between humans and non-humans is a conceptual category taught from an early age; in reality, human beings are but one species in the Animal Kingdom. We differ from the other animals insofar as we believe ourselves superior to them (and to one another), our capacity for willful cruelty and wanton destructiveness, and our ability to manipulate the environment in such a way as to systematically destroy life.

We also have the capacity for good and enlightened behaviour, if we so choose. 

Subjugation Photos

In all the of the following photos, humans and non-humans are herded, enslaved and subjugated, through the use of force by men with guns or prods.

Goats in a transport truck gasp for air.

Humans forced–like cattle–onto a cattle car to Treblinka.

A truckload of “comfort women” being shipped to the frontline for the Japanese soldiers.

Modern truck-drawn cattle car takes mammals to their death.

Palestinians being herded by force.

Factory farm scene, complete with cages similar to the standing chambers used for torture at Dachau.

Quotations from Others

“[He] spoke a eulogy for the mouse who had shared a portion of her life with him and who, because of him, had left this earth. ‘What do they know—all these scholars, all these philosophers, all the leaders of the world—about such as you? They have convinced themselves that man, the worst transgressor of all the species, is the crown of creation. All other creatures were created merely to provide him with food, pelts, to be tormented, exterminated. In relation to them, all people are Nazis; for the animals, it is an eternal Treblinka.’”

—Nobel Laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer, in The Letter Writer

“But for the sake of some little mouthful of flesh, we deprive a soul of the sun and light and of that proportion of life and time it had been born into the world to enjoy.”

—Plutarch

“Put a small child in a playpen with an apple and a bunny. If s/he eats the apple and plays with the bunny, s/he’s normal;but if s/he eats the bunny and plays with the apple, I’ll buy you a new car. Somewhere along the line we must have been TAUGHT to do the wrong thing.”

—Maynard

“As long as man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower beings, he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seeds of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.”

—Pythagorus

“All beings tremble before violence. All fear death, all love life. See yourself in others. Then whom can you hurt? What harm can you do?”

—Buddha

“Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”

—Albert Einstein

“He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man…”

—Isaiah 66:3

“The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites or women for men.”

—Alice Walker

In China, dogs are systematically murdered.

“Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it. ”

—Mark Twain

“The fate of animals is of greater importance to me than the fear of appearing ridiculous; it is indissolubly connected with the fate of men. ”

—Emile Zola

 

Animals are skinned—sometimes while fully alive—for perceived glamor.

“A man can live and be healthy without killing animals for food; therefore, if he eats meat, he participates in taking animal life merely for the sake of his appetite. And to act so is immoral. ”

—Leo Tolstoy

“To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. The more helpless the creature, the more that it is entitled to protection by man from the cruelty of man. ”

—Mahatma Gandhi

“Animals share with us the privilege of having a soul.”

—Pythagoras

“The squirrel that you kill in jest, dies in earnest.”

—Henry David Thoreau

“The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.”

—Charles Darwin

“All cruelty springs from weakness. ”

—Seneca

“The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them, that’s the essence of inhumanity. ”

—George Bernard Shaw

“The lives of animals are woven into our very being—closer than our own breathing—and our souls will suffer when they are gone. ”

—Gary Kowalski