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Animal Rights Quotes
Thomas
Alva Edison
'The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his/her
patients in the care of human frame, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of
disease.'
Immanuel
Kant
'We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.'
Unknown
'When good and evil are placed in opposition to one another, good usually
triumphs over evil. However, when good and evil make pacts with one another, it
is usually evil which triumphs.'
Henry
Beston
'In a world older and more complete than ours, animals move finished and
complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained,
living by voices we shall never hear. They are not underlings; they are other
nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of
the splendor and travail of the earth.' (A New Concept of Animals)
Jeremy
Bentham (1748-1832, Philosopher, Oxford University)
'The question is not, can they reason? Nor, can they talk? But, can they
suffer???'
Abraham
Lincoln
'I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights - that is the way of the
whole human being!' (Complete Works)
Lao Tze
(2600 years ago!)
'Those who have hardened, have a covenant with Death. Those who remain gentle
are conjoined with Life.'
Mahatma
Gandhi
'The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its
animals are treated. We err in copying the lower animal world if we are superior
to it. It ill becomes us to invoke in our daily prayers the blessings of God,
the compassionate, if we in turn will not practice elementary compassion towards
our fellow creatures.'
Mark Twain
'The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to
other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority
to any creature that cannot.'
Benjamin
Zephaniah, rap artist/poet/playwrite
'The way animals are carted around reminds me of the slavery of my people... The
slavery of animals has to be ended too.' (PETANEWS)
Alexander
von Humboldt
'Cruelty to animals is one of the most significant vices of a low and ignoble
people. Wherever one notices them, they constitute a sure sign of ignorance and
brutality which cannot be painted over even by all the evidence of wealth and
luxury. Cruelty to animals cannot exist together with true education and true
learning.'
Lamartine
'We have not two hearts - one for the animals, and the other for man... In the
cruelty toward the former and the cruelty toward the latter, there is no other
difference than in the victim.'
Ingrid
Newkirk, President PETA
'When it comes to having a central nervous system, and the ability to feel pain,
hunger, and thirst; a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy.'
Albert
Schweitzer
'No one may shut his eyes to think the pain, which is therefore not visible to
him, is non-existent.'
Arthur
Goldberg
'In the bad old days reference to Blacks/women/Jews/others were in negative
language which perpetuated poor treatment/ abuse/ exploitation of these people.
Animals have suffered more from negative language stereotyping than all the
others, and demeans them so constantly that they created an environment that
allows all sorts of cruelties, many too horrendous to describe! An animal is
'it' instead of 'he' or 'she', this perpetuates our view of them as 'things'
rather than individuals and is a major first step towards cutting them up for
meat and leather, testing drugs/cosmetics/ household products on their bodies,
and tearing off their coats for furs!!! Those who have pets are referred to as
'owners' rather than guardians/care givers/companions, reinforcing the idea that
they are property much as slaves were considered property. Let's avoid these
references: Dirty rat; filthy pig; acting like an ass; dirty dog; she's a bitch;
ugly duckling; there's more than one way to skin a cat; behaving like an animal;
making a monkey out of someone; killing 2 birds with one stone; working like a
horse, you're chicken ... There are many more! Please think before uttering them
and tell others. Thank you!' (Veggie Singles News)
Michael
Klaper, M.D.
'Over a hundred years ago, John Stuart Mill said, 'It often happens that the
universal belief of one age a belief from which no one was free or could be free
without an extraordinary effort of genius or courage, becomes to a subsequent
age, so palpable an absurdity that the only difficulty is to imagine how such an
idea could ever have appeared credible.''
Count Leon
Tolstoi
'Between the murder of an animal and the murder of a man, there's no more than
ONE step!'
Albert
Schweitzer
'The thinking man must oppose all cruel customs no matter how deeply rooted in
tradition or surrounded by a halo. We need a boundless ethics which will include
the animals also. My life is full of meaning to me. The life around me must be
full of significance to it. If I want others to respect my life, then I must
respect the other life I see however strange it may be to mine. Ethics in our
western world has hitherto been largely limited to the relation of man to man...
but that is a limited ethics.'
Dr. Gerald
Curtler
'The more helpless the victim, the greater the crime!'
Ashley
Montagu (Anthropologist/Social Biologist)
'The bond and kinship which indissolubly exists between all living beings
requires especially on our part a deep involvement in their welfare. The
indifference, callousness, and contempt that so many people exhibit toward
animals is evil, first, because it results in great suffering in animals and,
second, because it results in an incalculably great impoverishment of the human
spirit.'
Thomas
Alva Edison
'Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution.
Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages!'
Jane
Goodall
'It's not that humans and non-humans are identical... but the lack of
understanding that led to the slave trade is the same lack of understanding many
people have about animals today. When slaves were brought over from Africa, many
people believed they were not humans, that they didn't have feelings. Many
people believe that primates and other animals don't have feelings, too, but
they do.' (Miami Herald)
Unknown
'Power is not sufficient evidence of truth!'
Bertha
Williams
'Conundrum: Coat with fur, hat with feathers, Lobster boiled alive, Shoes occur
in sundry leathers. How many animals have died, Hunted, trapped and crucified,
That I may dwell at ease? Fish and fowl and beast... Slaughtered that I may
feast. And what my caste, and who am I That I may live and they must die???'
George
Bernard Shaw
'We are all victims of the violence that animals suffer... their liberation is
also our liberation.'
Leonardo
da Vinci
'Truly man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds theirs. We live by
the death of others. We are burial places! I have from an early age abjured the
use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look on the murder
of animals as they now look on the murder of men.'
Dr.
Humphrey Primatt
'Pain is pain, whether it be inflicted on man or on beast; and the creature who
suffers it, whether man or beast, being sensible to the misery of it, whilst it
lasts, suffers evil... [T]he white man... can have no right, by virtue of his
color, to enslave and tyrannize over a black man... for the same reason, a man
can have no natural right to abuse and torment a beast.'
Jewish
Proverb
'You never soar so high as when you stoop down to help a child or an animal.'
William
Kunstler (Trial lawyer)
'A society remotely worth its salt eventually has to come to grips with the
barbarism practiced upon helpless creatures in the name of scientific
experimentation, tastier/tenderer meat, or more and larger eggs!'
Neil Ehmke
'Those who refuse to kill animals would certainly refuse to take the lives of
their fellow humans.'
Hippocrates
'The soul is the something in all living creatures, although the body of each is
different.' (Regimen Bk. I, 28)
Romain
Rolland (Nobel Laureate)
'To a man whose mind is free, there is something more intolerable in the
suffering of animals than in the suffering of men. For with the latter, it is at
least admitted that suffering is evil and that the man who causes it is a
criminal. But billions of animals are uselessly butchered every day without a
shadow of remorse. If any man were to refer to it, he would be thought
ridiculous. And that is the unpardonable crime. That alone is the justification
of all that men may suffer.'
Unknown
'Animals don't wear makeup, don't drink alcohol, don't drop bombs, don't
smoke... because you do, why should they suffer???'
John
Galsworthy
'Nothing so endangers the fineness of the human heart as the possession of power
over others: nothing so corrodes it as the callous or cruel exercise of that
power: and the more helpless the creature over whom power is cruelly or
callously exercised, the more the human heart is corroded. It is the recognition
of this truth which has brought the conscience of our age, and with it the law,
to say that we cannot any longer with impunity regard ourselves as licensed
torturers of the rest of creation; that we cannot, for our own sake, afford it.'
(The Sheaf)
Syrian
Proverb
'It is cruelty to the innocent not to punish the guilty.'
Unknown
'It may be noble, even spiritually uplifting, to forgive one's own personal
enemies. The Dailai Lama appears to have done so. And Christ certainly
exemplified that ideal. But it is sheer complicity to forgive enemies of other
innocent victims.'
Unknown
'Man's inhumanity to man is only surpassed by his cruelty to animals!'
Mark Twain
'Often it does seem a pity that Noah and his party didn't miss the boat. Heaven
is by favor; if it were by merit, your dog would go to heaven and you would stay
out!'
Walt
Whitman
'I think I could always live with animals. The more you're around people, the
more you love animals.'
George
Schaller (Zoologist/Director for Science)
'Humans are the one species the world could do very well without.'
Horacio
Granada
'Humanity is already completely ripened for the supreme punishment: the end of
this shameless species is rapidly approaching. We are really living the end of a
species that completed its cycle and has dug its own grave!'
Mark Twain
'If a man could be crossed with a cat, it would improve man, but it would
degrade the cat!'
Ogonyok,
Russian Magazine
'Out of 135 criminals, including robbers and rapists, 118 admitted that when
they were children they burned/hanged/ stabbed domestic animals.' (Quoted in
Voice of the Voiceless)
Jeff D.
Copeland
'Sharks. Though they have long been stigmatized as the terror of the seas, they
have far more to fear from humans. Over 100 million sharks die at the hands of
humans each year, while only 25 people a year die from shark attacks!' (E
Magazine)
Adela P.
'Make a Last Will and Testament NOW!!!
Only a formal legal document will place whatever your assets are exactly to
benefit the animals... if that's what you (hopefully) want! Two or three
loyal-to-the-cause and very active animal rights groups are better than one.
But... carefully observe/investigate regularly the consistency, nature,
frequency of the groups' activities. If they don't measure up, just change
them!!! There are today many other great groups small and large that need your
help!!!'
Adela P.
'Some, while deploring animal abuses, on the same breath approve 'benefits to
humans from certain animal abuses'! Who would criticize the Jewish holocaust or
Black slavery, and YET praise the benefits to Germans or Whites??? This
convenient ambiguity at the expense of animals is unacceptable!!!'
Enrique
Núñez, Pro dignidad Humana 'Aforismos'
'Sensitive persons do hear the moans of the world that's being murdered, and the
moans of the animals' that are being tortured. Those who do not perceive such
clamor, are already dead for God.'
Prof. Gary
L. Francione (Rutgers U. School of Law)
'We cannot talk simultaneously about animal rights and the 'humane' slaughter of
animals.'
Adela P.
'Humans call animals 'dumb'... after they robbed their entire own precious
world. They are intelligent beings in their own right, and thoroughly
self-sufficient... if not molested by humans. Yet, after millennia of slavery by
selfish/callous humans they're made to look dumb! The 'superior species' in
their situations would, too, appear 'dumb'.'
Adela P.
'It seems increasingly dogs are attacking humans in response to their slavery...
AND,
wildlife in captivity are also attacking their enslavers AND
the public... Their messages are loud and clear: LET US OUT AND LEAVE US
ALONE!!!'
Adela P.
'Watch it! It was robbed from other beings so it's HOT 'MERCHANDISE' and it's
against the Law... the LAW OF DECENCY!!! Stay within this Law, steer clear of
wool/pearl/silk/ fish bone/ fur/ivory/coral/ down/beeswax/honey/ cashmere/
lanolin/ feathers/ camel hair/flesh/milk/ eggs/ fish/ seafood/ other!!!'
Adela P.
'All animals go through interminable hard labor to produce what humans
shamelessly rob from them at great physical/mental pain to them and to their
young. THINK TWICE before using hot 'merchandise'!!!'
Carol
Watson (Amberwood Burro Sanctuary)
'Burros (also known as Donkeys): Kind/gentle-eyed/velvety-nosed donkey/burro has
been throughout history a burden bearer/used extensively in every other
conceivable work, and the reward for his loyal service has been
neglect/abuse/ridicule! Ever since the decline of mining and the invention of
automobile the burro no longer being gainful to man, was abandoned. They banded
together and lived off grazing lands which ranchers used for their sheep/cattle,
and hunters for their target animals. War is declared on burros by
shooting/burning/running them off cliffs to their deaths!'
Anatole
France
'An old philosopher said to Monsieur Coignard, a Reverend Father: 'You are a
pig!' To which Abad Coignard answered: 'You flatter me, sir. But unfortunately,
I'm only a man.'' (From 'Opinions and Warnings of Abad Coignard')
Arthur B.
Evans & Ron Miller
'Jules Verne was not the 'mad scientist' some thought him to be. In several of
his novels he showed great concern for the dangers of technology/pollution
caused by the oil industry/the imminent extinction of whales, and in his 1901
novel 'The Village in the Tree Tops' he exposed the slaughter of elephants for
their ivory!' (Scientific America)
Godofredo
Tutzin, Esq.
'The first public protest against cruelty to animals, per Toynbee, a historian,
was in 55 BC by the Roman people, to save the life of an elephant.' (Cuando los
Animales Tenían Voz) (When Animals had a voice)
Pennsylvania Dutch Saying
'We don't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children!'
Thomas
Berry
'The reduction of the earth to an object simply for human's use/ possession is
unthinkable in most traditional cultures... the earth belongs to itself and to
all the component members of the community.' (The Viable Human)
Alice
Walker, Pulitzer Prize Winner (Author The Color Purple)
'But if by some miracle and all our struggle, the earth is spared, only justice
to every living being will save humankind.'
Mahatma
Gandhi
'The Earth has enough for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed!'
Bina
Robinson (The Civil Abolitionist)
'Men and women who elect not to add to the over proliferation of the human
species are to be commended for taking this responsibility. Some criticize them
for supporting animals instead of adopting children, but everyone isn't cut out
for parenthood. Children are infinitely more expensive to support and require
many more years of commitment. It's more selfish to bring beings to the world
that may have a life below par!'
Population
Crisis Committee
'In the 6 seconds it takes you to read this sentence, 24 people will be added to
the Earth's population. Before you've finished this letter, that number will
reach 1000. Within an hour... 11,000. By day's end... 260,000. Before you go to
bed 21 nights from now, the net growth in human numbers will be enough to fill a
city the size of San Francisco.
It took 4 million years for humanity to reach the 2 billion mark. Only 30 years
to add a 3rd billion. And now we're increasing by 95 million every single year!
No wonder they call it the human race!'
Pat Derby
'You have to love animals for what they are or leave them alone. The best thing
you can do for them if you love them is leave them alone and see that other
people do too.'
Humane
Activist News (Animals Need You, Inc.)
'Among many other fine qualities in animals, their understanding of compassion
even surpasses humans'! They do not want others to suffer. When rhesus monkeys
were forced by experimenters at Northwestern University to choose between
starving and electrically shocking a helpless companion, they chose to
starve!!!'
Unknown
'You love an animal when you don't want anything from her/him.'
Abraham
Lincoln
'I could not have slept tonight if I had left that helpless creature to perish
on the ground. (To friends who chided him for delaying them by stopping to
re-nest a fledgling.)'
Unknown
'To be able to love a butterfly, we must care for the caterpillars too.'
Albert
Schweitzer
'To the truly ethical man, all of life is sacred, including forms of life that
from the human point of view may seem lower than ours.'
William
Cowper Powys
'I would not enter on my list of friends (Though graced with polished manners
and fine sense, Yet wanting sensibility), the man Who needlessly sets foot upon
a worm.'
Unknown
'Kind hearts are the gardens; kind thoughts are the roots; kind words are the
blossoms; kind deeds are the fruits - animal and human kindness... ah so good!'
The Sacred
Book of the Sikhs
'He who toward all living things is kind... Ah! He indeed will true religion
find.'
Cardinal
Newman
'Now what is it moves our very heart, and sickens us so much as cruelty shown to
poor brutes? I suppose this: first, that they have done us no harm; next that
they have no power whatsoever of resistance; it is the cowardice and tyranny, of
which they are the victims, which make their sufferings so especially touching.
There is something so very dreadful, so satanic in tormenting those who have
never harmed us, and who cannot defend themselves, who are utterly in our
power.'
St.
Francis of Assisi
'If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of
compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow
men.'
Ecclesiastes 3:10
'For that which befalleth the sons of men, befalleth the beasts, even one thing
befalleth them: As the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one
breath, so that a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast.'
Buddha
'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?'
Concern
for Helping Animals in Israel
'There's a Jewish Law to prevent 'tsaar ba-alei chaim' (the suffering of living
creatures) and to value their lives as intrinsically worthy. Causing suffering
to any living creature constitutes a violation of this Law which states: 'It is
forbidden, according to the Law of the Holy Torah, to inflict pain upon any
living creatures. On the contrary, it is our duty to relieve the pain of any
creatures...''
Pedro di
Lorenzo
'Torturing animals in any form in the name of Christ, the Virgin and the Saints,
in these pagan practices, it simply means to step on and spit at, the work of
God.'
Vatican
City
'Pope John Paul said that 'the future of humanity and planet earth are in danger
because of a lack of respect for animals and the environment. It is necessary
and urgent that following the example of the poor man [St. Francis] one decides
to abandon inconsiderate forms of domination, capture and custody with respect
to all creatures.'' (Associated Press)
Rt. Rev.
John Chanler White, D.D. (Late Episcopal Bishop of Springfield, Illinois)
'As a Bishop of the Church of God, I am ashamed to say that the Church as an
organization has never made any official pronouncement on the subject of the
care and treatment of animals that I am able to find. I am more and more amazed
as I have studied the matter to find that the Church has almost completely
ignored the animal kingdom... It is time, fully time, that all Christian people
awake to the necessity of taking an active part in the fight against what I dare
to call the Crime of Animal Cruelty. Everyone who loves God and animals should
help bear the burden of the fight against this insidious evil.'
Helen
Keller
'I'm the only one, but still I am one; I cannot do everything, but still I can
do something; I will not refuse to do the something I can do!'
Larry
Eisenberg
'The smallest deed is better than the grandest intention.' (Bulletin Boarders
C.S.S.)
Robert F.
Kennedy
'Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of
others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope,
and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring,
these ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of
oppression and resistance.'
Steven
Tiger, Physician Assistant-Certified (The Anti-Vivisection Society)
'So keep at it [animal rights fight] and keep cool. We are not trying to achieve
the impossible. We are trying to accelerate the inevitable.'
Margaret
Mead
'Never doubt that a small group of concerned citizens can change the world.
Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.'
Susan
Jeffers and Ellen Carr
'Feel the fear and do it anyway.'
Anonymous
'I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I
can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it
now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.'
(Quoted by Carla in PETA's Animal Times)
William L.
O'Neill
'All great reforms require one to dare a lot to win a little.'
Mary
McDonald-Lewis, Dir.
'Do get involved in animal rights, YES... BUT: pace yourself! Don't assume you
will end these atrocities tomorrow! Lots of people with lots of more knowledge
before have been working over hundred years to end this obscenity. Do take time
to play! Celebrate frequently the beauty that does exist despite the world's
brutality. Do unite with others who share your views. Every individual who gets
involved takes a single stone from the enslaving wall until one day the wall
must inevitably crumble and fall! While many animals and many of us will not
live to see that day, we are working to help build the foundation for the
activists of tomorrow who'll continue our work. Our torch must not be allowed to
fall to the ground, but passed from generation to generation without a stop
until that glorious day of animal liberation arrives! Tomorrow's activists will
remember the early animal soldiers with respect and affection.' (Last Chance for
Animals)
Unknown
'Sad many wonderful activists abandon our cause when getting older! Keep in mind
this anonymous golden thought: 'NOBODY GROWS OLD BY MERELY LIVING A NUMBER OF
YEARS; PEOPLE GROW
OLD BY DESERTING THEIR IDEALS!''
Ed Duvin
'In the words of the Spanish philosopher, Miguel de Unamuno, 'Sometimes to be
silent is to lie.' Our movement hasn't been silent but whispering at a barely
audible level ... it hardly represents the brutal truth!' (Animalines)
Richard
Bach
'Here's a test to find out whether your mission on earth is finished: If you're
alive, it isn't!'
Dr. Martin
Luther King
'If a man has not discovered something he will die for, he is not fit to live.'
(Quoted by Chris DeRose (Last Chance for Animals) in 'In Your Face')
Ralph
Chaplin
'Mourn not the dead, that in the cool earth lie, dust unto dust; The calm, sweet
earth, that mothers all who die, as all men must; But rather mourn the apathetic
throng, the cowed and the meek, who see the world's great anguish and its wrong,
and dare not speak!'
Abraham
Lincoln
'He who sees cruelty and does nothing about it is himself cruel.'
Richard
Calore
'The hands that help are far, far holier than the hands that pray. The true duty
of an animal rights/protection society is not to prolong life but to prevent
suffering!' (In Defense of Cats)
Unknown
'Congressman Robert Torricelli gave a speech on how to get your Congressperson
to co-sponsor and support legislation you want. The Congressman's advice was to
pester the life out of your representative. Write/phone and, if possible, visit
his/her office. Bring others with you if you can, to show more support. Keep up
the pressure, and encourage as many others as you can to do the same until the
Congressperson becomes inundated with letters and phone calls. He reminded us
that the other side works very hard to stop legislation that would benefit
animals, and we must work just as hard, or even harder, if we want these bills
to pass.'
Ava
Barcelona
'Don't ask, 'How is one protest letter going to help?' If a million people ask
the same question - you know the math!' (As quoted by Dot Hayes, Act'tion Line)
Dr.
Escarlata Justo Brito (ESSI,
Spain)
'Animals cannot be defended with sentimentalism and crying, because this does
not move any hearts. More effective is to engage in a more practical fight based
on scientific and economic arguments. Many people only understand money and
their own welfare, not the suffering and murder of innocent species.'
Edmund
Burke
'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good persons to do
nothing.'
Mark Twain
'A newspaper is not just for reporting the news as it is, but to make people mad
enough to do something about it.'
Adrienne
Rich
'My heart is moved by all I cannot save: So much has been destroyed, I have to
cast my lot with those who age after age perseverily with no extraordinary power
reconstitute the world.' (The Dream of a Common Language)
Intl.
Society for Animal Rights
'Let's bring MORE & MORE to the attention of the public the truth about the
existing link between animal crimes and other contemporary injustices: spousal
abuse/child abuse/elderly abuse/ other human abuses.'
Ahsley
Montague (Anthropologist and Social Biologist)
'Stand still, close your eyes and listen; in the silence you can hear the cries
of pain and low moans of anguish of animals waiting to die... do everything you
can even if today it is just one small thing. There are no excuses for inaction,
despair, egotism, or petulance that matter to the animals.'
Adela P.
'Colleges/high schools/(elementary too?) are terrific places to sow animal
rights seeds! A sympathetic student could, through the school's animal rights or
protection group, invite you to show videos/give talks. If no group, take an
inexpensive course and start one. You'll get free use of copying/phoning/
computers/ meeting place... and receive a good money grant too!'
Unknown
'There is a replacement to every single animal product in existence. Find it -
use it... Or just rid your life of it!'
Adela P.
'Animal abusers are not the only culprits - the consumers are the biggest
abusers! As long as buyers, users, attendees at animal performances, etc., keep
using, abusers keep abusing!!!'
Terry
Stanley, Pres. Northwoods Humane Society, Hayward, Wisconsin
'We have those who would like us to stay popular by not taking stands against
hunting, fur, and animal use in research. But something a very wise man once
said to me always repeats itself loudly: 'You fail because you become so focused
on the little dog or cat at your feet, that not looking up, you fail to see the
nation of animals who are suffering.''
John
Morley
'Active hatred of cruelty, injustice and oppression is perhaps the main
difference between a good person and a bad one.'
John
Ruskin
'He who is not actively kind is cruel!'
John Adams
'This is a revolution, damn it! We're going to have to offend somebody!'
Lawrence
Carter Long (Former Poster Child for the United Way)
'The animal rights movement I belong to does not have the time or the
inclination to criticize the work of others, it understands that working towards
our abolitionist goals in incremental steps is the only way we will move ahead,
and it has no use for labels - it is too busy taking action. The animal rights
movement I belong to is united in support of our common goals rather than
squabbling over attention or money, it has no room for ego or ivory tower
activists with personal agendas - it understands the value of working together!'
Alex
Pacheco (PETA)
'Please remember the hundreds of tiny empty stomachs in our communities. Winter
is a tough time for birds and other small creatures as food can become buried
beneath snow or frozen ground. Scatter seeds in your yard, nearby parks.'
Adela P.
'Please also remember the pitiful gasping/thirsty little mouths/ beaks in
summer. They'll appreciate abundant/fresh/cool/clean/ water! Food they can get
easily in parks/sidewalks!'
Henry
Spira (Coalition to Abolish the Draize Test)
'Never deceive the media or the public. Credibility is all we have to go on.
Nothing gets done without total commitment and outrage mixed with political
realism. Never assume anything: Check everything out yourself, at the source.
Establish the credibility that when we start something, we finish it. With such
track record, we then move to bigger struggles and more significant victories.
No congressional bill or legal gimmickry by itself will save the animals. The
courts can, at best, open up the possibility for us to intervene in defense of
animals, but the courts will not act until effective protests disrupt the
system's orderly operation.'
Steven
Tiger, Physician Assistant-Certified
'Reform vs. Abolition: Some reformers waste their time condemning abolitionists
as standing in the way of achievable gain, while some abolitionists are busy
condemning reformers as betrayers of the cause. But the issue is not about
philosophical purity vs. practical accomplishment; it is about identifying one's
arena of activity and working in the manner appropriate for that arena.' (Reform
vs. Abolition -The Final Word)
St. Louis
Animal Rights Team
''Violence' vs. Passivism: Last Century's 'Underground Railroad' illegally
helped human slaves escape from bondage. They recognized the laws that legalized
slavery were morally wrong and should not be legitimized with compliance. They
risked their own freedom by violating the property rights of slave owners and
leading slaves to freedom. Today, the Animal Liberation Front (ALF)
risk their freedom to liberate innocent animals that are immorally
abused/injured/murdered by actions that violate the property rights of animal
abusers. Animals are covertly removed from danger and placed in foster care
facilities. Torturing equipment like stereotaxic devices/ decapitators/
restraining devices, etc. are damaged or destroyed to prevent their further use.
No human or non-human animal is ever harmed in any way.' (Position Statement)
Robert A.
Hansen
'Animal Liberation Front (ALF).
The moderates in our movement have precious little basis for reprehending those
who raid laboratories or engage in 'ecotage'. To paraphrase Seneca - 'Extremism
in the cause of compassion is no vice, and moderation in the pursuit of justice
is no virtue.''
Martin
Luther King
'And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor
political, nor popular, but he must take it because his conscience tells him
that it is right.'
Albert
Leffingwell, M.D.
'He is a slave who dare not be in the right with two or three; he's a slave who
dare not choose hatred, slander and abuse, rather than in silence shrink from
the truth he needs must think. There's no slavery more degrading to character
than the ignoble fear of standing for truth and justice without the multitudes
clamoring approbation and support.'
Adela P.
'It's disheartening that animal people criticize societies that enlist the help
of actors or organize creative acts like 'I'd rather go naked than wear fur,' to
increase public awareness to our cause. These are great/courageous ideas which
time has come! Liberation of animals is REVOLUTION - not elegant performance/
intellectual competition. We should do most anything to advance the animal
rights cause. All the bickering may make the one step forward... TWO STEPS
BACKWARD???'
Allan
Bullington
'If social activism required human perfection, nothing would ever get done.
Thankfully, we don't have to be perfect to show people how to prevent the
suffering of others. In the long run, the best we can do is to make sure we're
doing the best we can do ourselves and to speak out for all living beings.' (The
True Nature Network)
Adela P.
'Beware of armchair 'animal rights or welfare' societies! Anyone can become a
'nonprofit' society, make occasional mailings of heart-rending pictures and just
wait for the contributions to shower in... It takes a genuine animal person or
group to devote maximum time, hard work and money towards the total liberation
of all animals, including doing 'dirty work' when needed and refraining from any
and all use of animals and their products, even compassion for insects, etc.
too! Contribute only to those who, in your conscience, qualify!!! AND...
there are thousands of effective things we can do for the animal cause with
little or no money - alone or with others!!!'
Prof. Gary
L. Francione (Rutgers U. School of Law)
'We need to reshape the movement as one of grassroots activists, and not
'professional activists' who populate the seemingly endless number of national
animal rights groups. For many people, activism has become writing a check to a
national group that is very pleased to have you leave it to them. Although it is
important to give financial support to worthy efforts only, giving money is not
enough and giving to the wrong groups can actually do more harm than good.'
Adela P.
'Some 'good animal' people USE the animal rights/protection movement for their
own careers/fame/money!!! What's the difference between animals in
labs/zoos/factory farms/pet shops/ circuses/etc. and those held in captivity to
teach them OUR language/exhibit/train to market as pets (and other)/intrude into
their territories to move or study them with myriads of profitable excuses
instead of denouncing their slavery and contributing to their liberation!!!
Animals don't need to learn humans' ways or 'be helped' (for whose benefit?) any
more than already forced into for millennia! To all animal opportunists who pass
as animal rights persons, beware: better follow the genuine advice from Pat
Derby: JUST
LEAVE ANIMALS ALONE!!!'
Eric
Eckholm
'One animal or plant species may become extinct every hour. All species are
doomed to extinction, but man through worldwide development/killing animals for
food/profit/using toxic chemicals such as pesticides/industrial wastes, will
accelerate the extinction of plants/animals and the result will be a more
hostile environment for man.' (Worldwatch Institute)
Adela P.
'Ecology more important than saving animals from slavery??? Humans suffer the
raping of the earth but animals suffer DOUBLY: the raping of the earth PLUS
their own raping by humans. They are innocent/they are not the ones who raped
the earth/they enrich it for us all from the tiniest microscopic beings to the
largest ones.'
Adela P.
'I hear it's better to use animal products than synthetics, which are harmful to
humans and the earth... but destroying one segment of the creation to allegedly
save another is the idea of fools!!!'
Phil
Becker
'What is 'Animal Rights'? It is the philosophy of allowing nonhuman animals to
have the most basic rights that all sentient beings desire: the freedom to live
a natural life free from human exploitation, pain and suffering, and premature
death. This is what the animal rights movement is about, it is not about working
for equality between human and nonhuman animals.' (Vegetarian Journal)
PETA
(People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)
'Animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment!'
Phil
Becker
'How is 'Animal Rights' different from 'Animal Welfare'? Animal welfare seeks to
alleviate the suffering of animals while they are being exploited - without
attempting to question the fundamental basis of whether it is acceptable to
exploit animals in the first place. Animal rights beliefs reject the idea that
animals need to have a value to the human species in order to be deserving of
rights.' (Vegetarian Journal)
Reverence
for Life
'Distinguishing a true gentleman is his instinctive chivalry at all times and on
all occasions toward the weak and defenseless, be it human or be it nonhuman.'
C. Richard
Calore
'Many times I'm told I should stop protecting animals and start protecting
people. I'm deeply concerned about the poor/the children/the elderly/the sick
and those persecuted because of race, color and creed. Their suffering is my
suffering, but at least they can talk for their own defense; animals cannot!'
('The Rights of Animals' Voice of the Voiceless)
Haywood
Brown
'A cat is nobody's fool!'
Ella
Wheeler Wilcox
'So many gods, so many creeds, so many paths that wind and wind while just the
art of being kind, is all the sad world needs.'
Thomas
Alva Edison
'The money one gets for selling one's soul is always spent in deadening one's
conscience, so the net gain at the end of a lifetime is no greater than if the
diabolic bargain had not been struck.'
Unknown
'You cannot do evil that good may result.'
Walt
Whitman
'I think I could turn and live with animals, They are so placid and
self-contained! I stand and look at them long and long, They do not sweat and
whine about their condition, they do not lie awake in the dark and weep for
their sins, they do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, Not one is
dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things, Not one
kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago, Not one is
respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.' (Song of Myself 'Leaves of Grass')
Schopenhauer
'The assumption that animals are without rights and the illusion that our
treatment of them has no moral significance is a positively outrageous example
of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of
morality.' (On the Basis of Morality)
Sabrina
LeBeauf (Cosby Shaw Star)
'Even animals who sometimes seem unlovable to humans, have also feelings. They
can suffer just as we do.'
Bill Kern,
Dept. of Wildlife Ecology & Conservation, University of Florida
'When people decide an animal is a nuisance, they are basically putting a death
penalty on that animal.' (Quoted in the Miami Herald)
Lewis
Mumford
'One of the functions of intelligence is to take account of the dangers that
come from trusting solely to the intelligence.' (The Transformations of Man)
James
Boswell (1740-1795)
'But the question is, whether the animals who endure such sufferings of various
kinds for the service and entertainment of man, would accept existence upon the
terms on which they have it.' (Life of Dr. Johnson)
Charlie
Rose (Former Representative)
'I am not willing to let the market-place determine the future of the animal
kingdom.'
World
Society for the Protection of Animals
'If you don't think animal protection is a battle, consider the weapons we're up
against: harpoon; leg-hold trap; cockfighting spur; puntilla (knife used in the
slaughter of livestock in certain countries); ferao (used in Brazil to poke out
the eyes of cattle before leading them to slaughter); hakapik (used to club baby
seals)... among others!'
Vernon
Howard
'What domestication and human 'help' (read slavery) does to animals. >From
Taoism: 'A carefree band of horses galloped spiritedly around the hills and
meadows. They dined on green grass and drank clear water form cool streams.
Living freely, naturally and contentedly. Along came a horse-trainer named Polo.
He captured the unsuspecting horses, declaring, 'I know what is best for them.'
He bridled the horses, decorated them with cheap ornaments, gave them numbers.
Then he made them perform in public. They were forced to trot about in precise
formation to the crackling commands of a whip. The once-carefree horses turned
into mechanical performers tired, sick, afraid...' (Mystic Path)
Jeremy
Bentham (1748-1832, Philosopher, Oxford University)
'I don't care whether animals are capable of thinking; all I care about is that
they are capable of suffering!'
Unknown
'We are all victims of the violence that animals suffer... their liberation is
also our liberation!'
Brother
John
'Recorded history shows the relationship between human and animal has been very
one-sided! Man's exploitation/treatment of animals stands out as one of the
darkest stains on his reputation. Is the purpose of life for the indulgence of
selfish desires? Or a medium for soul growth? If we behave brutally or
selfishly, then we are brutes and selfish. No religious label or outward facade
alters this truth. Can we believe in and preach life after death, and yet be
party to murdering millions of innocent animals via the blood-drenched abattoir,
vivisection, fur trade, 'games', entertainment, 'sports'???'
Adela P.
''Extinction' issue. Save the species for whom??? Humans' convenience, of
course! Individuals of the species are snatched from their
homes/family/habitat/held in captivity/forced to mate at great physical/
spiritual pain. When the right numbers are reached, their holocaust starts all
over again! Another merry-go-round/ bu$ine$$ a$ u$ual!!!
Protectionists/welfarists find it a profitable issue: no controversy/ easy
donations! I'd rather see an entire species extinct than in the hands of the
humans!'
Brigid
Brophy (1929-)
'To us it seems incredible that the Greek philosophers should have scanned so
deeply into right and wrong and yet never noticed the immorality of slavery.
Perhaps 3000 years from now it will seem equally incredible that we do not
notice the immorality of our own oppression of animals.' ('The Rights of
Animals', Sunday Times)
Adela P.
'FREE
animals of the jungle/air/sea/mountains are called 'wild', 'savage', 'vicious',
'beasts' who defend themselves and their own territories from greedy, ruthless
'brave' men armed to the teeth/ with snares, tranquilizing guns, other.
Enslaving them forever, then murdering them, THEN calling them 'dumb'!!!'
Vernon
Howard
'Cruelty practiced as a matter of social principle or public policy, and
presented to the community as a means to a higher goal is the most obscene and
decadent phenomenon of any civilization.' (The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power)
Vernon
Howard
'The Truth must be told at all costs, no matter how unpopular it may be. The
authentic spiritual leader, having freed himself of his own false need to be
popular, tells the Truth whether it falls on fertile or stony ground. Such a
teacher is the salt of the earth, though few know it. If you think the world is
delirious as is, you would find it intolerable without his healing influence.'
(The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power)
Arthur
Schopenhauer
'[T]he moralists of Europe [have] pretended that beasts have no rights... a
doctrine revolting/gross/barbarous... on which a native of the Asiatic uplands
could not look without righteous horror...' (PETA's Animal Times 'Ask Carla')
Hitopadesa
'Life is as dear to others as it is to oneself. Good men bear this in mind and
are merciful to all living creatures.'
L.T.
Danshiell
'The lack of humane education is the principal cause of crime.' (From a
Legislative Address)
Lord
(Walter Russell) Brain (1895-1966)
'I personally can see no reason for conceding mind to my fellow men and denying
it to animals... I at least cannot doubt that the interests and activities of
animals are correlated with awareness and feeling in the same way as my own, and
which may be, for aught I know, just as vivid.' (Presidential address 'The
Assessment of Pain in Men and Animals')
Unknown
'He [the truly ethical man] breaks no leaf from the tree, plucks no flower, is
careful to crush no insect with his feet. When he works by his lamp in the
summer evening, he prefers to keep his window shut and to breathe the stifling
air rather than to see insect after insect falling on his table with singed
wings. If after a rain he is walking on the road and sees an earthworm gone
astray, he remembers it will dry up in the sun if it does not get back in time
to the earth into which it can burrow, and helps it from the fatal stones into
the grass. If he comes upon an insect fallen into a puddle, he takes time to
save it by extending a leaf or a stalk to it. He is not afraid of being laughed
at as sentimental. It is the fate of every truth to be ridiculed before it is
recognized. It was once considered stupid to think colored men were really human
and must be treated humanely. The time is coming when people will be amazed that
it took so long for mankind to recognize that thoughtless injury to life is
incompatible with ethics.'
George
Bernard Shaw
'Custom will reconcile people to any atrocity.'
Henry Ward
Beecher (1813-1887)
'For fidelity, devotion, love, many a two-legged animal is below the dog and the
horse. Happy would it be for thousands of people if they could stand at last
before the Judgment Seat and say 'I have loved as truly and I have lived as
decently as my dog.' And yet we call them 'only brutes'!' (The Clergy Speak for
Animals)
Luther
Burbank (1849-1926)
'If the creatures with fur/feathers/fins are our brothers in a lower stage of
development then their very weakness and inability to protest, demands that man
should refrain from torturing them for the mere possibility of obtaining some
knowledge which he believes may be to his own interest.' (Letter to Mrs. C.P.
Farrell)
Lloyd
Biggle, Jr. (1923-)
'Guard the life of another creature as you would your own because it is your
own. On life's scale of values, the smallest is no less precious to the creature
who owns it than the largest...' (The Light that Never Was)
Ernest
Bell (1851-1933)
'The man who is described as behaving 'like a beast' would often in his behavior
be a disgrace to any known animal.' (Summer School Papers)
Will Cuppy
(1884-1949)
'If an animal does something we call it instinct; if we do the same thing for
the same reason, we call it intelligence!' (National Enquirer)
George
Louis Leclerk de Buffon (1707-1788)
'He [man] abuses equally other animals and his own species, the rest of whom
live in famine, languish in misery, and work only to satisfy the immoderate
appetite and the still more insatiable vanity of this human being who,
destroying others by want, destroys himself by excess.' (L'Histoire Naturelle)
Ernest
Bell (1851-1933)
'The old assumption that animals acted exclusively by instinct, while man had a
monopoly of reason, is, we think, maintained by few people nowadays who have any
knowledge at all about animals. We can only wonder that so absurd a theory could
have been held for so long a time as it was, when on all sides the evidence of
animals' power of reasoning is crushing.' (Summer School Papers)
Ernest
Bell (1851-1933)
'Man is an almost hopelessly conceited animal, this pygmy! He thinks that not
only the earth with all that it contains was created for his benefit, but also
the sky, the sun, and indeed, the whole universe, as far as he has any knowledge
of it, were designed for his purposes and welfare.' (Superiority in the Lower
Animals)
Lord
(Henry) Bolingbroke (1678-1751)
'I think it indisputable that the distance between the intellectual faculties of
different men is greater than that between the same faculties in some men and
some other animals.' (Essays on Human Knowledge)
Rosa
Bonheur (1822-1899)
'The horse is, like man, the most beautiful and the most miserable of creatures,
only, in the case of man, it is vice or property that makes him ugly. He is
responsible for his own decadence, while the horse is only a slave.' (Rose
Bonheur, a Life and a Legend)
1936
Dhammapada (Buddhism)
'One act of pure love in saving life is greater than spending the whole of one's
time in religious offerings to the gods.'
Anna
Sewell
'There is no religion without love. If it does not teach to be good and kind to
beast as well as man it is all a sham.' (Black Beauty) Quoted in Peta's Animal
Times 'Ask Carla'
Rev. J.A.
Mitchell
'Cruelty to animals is a two-edged sword, injuring not only the helpless
sufferers, but blunting the moral nature of the person guilty of the offense. A
man cannot be a true Christian and willingly inflict torture on any living
being.'
St. John
Chrysostom (c.347-407)
'Surely we ought to show them (animals) great kindness and gentleness for many
reasons, but, above all, because they are of the same origin as ourselves.'
(Homilies)
Parkes
Cadman (1864-1936)
'We have abolished human bondage because it cursed those who imposed it. It is
now our bounden duty to oppose cruelty to those creatures of our common Father
which share with man the mystery of life.' (The Clergy Speak for Animals)
The Holy
Bible (Isaiah 66:3)
'He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if
he cut off a dog's neck. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul
delighteth in their abominations.'
Yin-chih-wen (A Confucian-Taoist treatise, probably post 4th Century A.D. Attr.
Wen Ch'ang)
'(1) Buy captive creatures and set them free. (2) Hold fast to vegetarianism and
abstain from taking life. (3) Whenever taking a step, always watch for ants and
insects. Prohibit the building of fires outside (lest insects be killed) and do
not set mountain woods or forests ablaze. (4) Help people in distress as you
would help a fish in a dried up rut. Free people from danger as you would free a
sparrow from a fine net. (5) Benefit living creatures and human beings.
Cultivate goodness and happiness.'
L.C. Birch
(1918-)
'(The animal rights movement) should be supported by all Christians. In an
ecological universe, every created entity has intrinsic value because all are
subjects as well as objects. As we cover more and more of the earth with our
factories/ highways/ towns/parking lots, we annihilate more and more plants and
animals.' (From address before 450 scientists/religious leaders at the World
Council of Churches Conference on Faith/Science and the Future)
Dr. Joyce
Brothers
'Psychologists/sociologists/criminologists studied prison inmates who committed
especially brutal/sadistic crimes to humans like rape/torture/murder. One common
factor in almost all of these sadistic crimes was a background of animal abuse
and torture in these criminals' youths, adolescence or early childhood. Because
of these and many similar findings, abuse of animals is viewed as a predictor of
vicious crimes against people!' (Daily News)
Samson
Raphael Hirsch
'Above all, those to whom the care of young minds has been entrusted should see
to it that they respect both the smallest and largest animals as beings which,
like people, have been summoned to the joy of life...'
Daily
Breeze
'A 14-year old Japanese boy confessed to killing a mentally retarded 11-year old
in Kobe and dumping the mutilated/severed head in a schoolyard. Police
investigated killings of pigeons and other small animals in the area, which led
them to the killer boy!' (CONTACT Magazine)
CONTACT
Magazine
'Discovery Channel's 'Justice Files-Serial Killings' documented that murderers
share a background of setting fires and cruelty to animals before murdering
humans: Ted Bundy committed 50 murders and spent his youth torturing animals.
Albert Salvo (The Boston Strangler) murdered 13 women and confessed as a youth
he trapped dogs/cats in orange crates and shot arrows into the boxes. Jeffrey
Dahmer inflicted unspeakable horrors to animals then went on to murder/mutilate
dozens of humans, even cannibalized and committed necrophilia on some of the
bodies! MORE? Day before Russell Eugene Weston shot & killed 2 U.S. Capitol
officers and wounded a woman, he shot and killed all of his father's 14 cats,
and left the remains of his father's 2 favorites ones in a bucket for him to
find!!!'
Unknown
''The
Bell
of Justice'. In an old city in Italy,
its king had installed a bell in the public square. Anyone wrongly treated would
ring it and get justice. After many years the bell rope rotted away so it was
tied with a wild vine to make it longer. One day an abandoned/old/starving horse
wandered into the square, took a mouthful hungrily of the vine... and the bell
rang! The king hurried to the square and saw an old/thin/hungry horse and said
he should have justice. He immediately summoned the owner and ordered him to
look after his old horse, to give him good food and water, a proper stable and
peace and if he didn't he would be punished! Justice was done and all the
citizens felt their magistrate acted wisely.'
William
Blake
'Little fly, thy summer's play My thoughtless hand has brushed away. Am not I a
fly like thee? Or art not thou a man like me? For I dance and drink and sing,
Till some blind hand shall brush my wing!' (The Fly, from Songs of Experience)
Alice
Walker, Pulitzer Prize Winner
'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.'
(Author The Color Purple)
Animals
Magazine
'Bats. They do not 'multiply like rabbits', most bear only a single young each
year. They do not chew through wiring/ insulation/ other. They aren't blind,
they don't get into women's hair, and they aren't rodents. In fact, bats are
more closely related to humans.'
Marjorie
Thorn
'Death Watch. I wish I hadn't watched it, when I sprayed, From circling flight
it fell upon my quilt. Its insect hands plucked at its mouth, assayed To take
out toxin, and a human's guilt. Then wavering antenna met like hands in prayer.
It shuddered some, but made no move to fly; Just bowed its head in posture of
despair. Remorsefully I watched the creature die!' (In Ozark Gardens)
Brigid
Brophy
'The fact that there are bigger injustices and wrongs doesn't make it right to
sacrifice an innocent monkey. It doesn't alter the case at all.' (Hackenfeller's
Ape)
Mohandas
Gandhi
'It's the action, not the fruit of the action, that's important. You may never
know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no
result!' (PETA's Calendar)
Unknown
'A wish changes nothing. A decision with action changes all!'
Unknown
'Let's NOT forget the billions of animals that suffer and die because of the
human race.'
Bill
Dollinger
'Civil disobedience has been used as an effective means of bringing about social
change throughout history. Thoreau/ Gandhi/ Martin Luther King, Jr. all
practiced nonviolent civil disobedience. It allows us to follow the 'moral law,'
and it attracts media to the event enabling us to tell the whole world what
really goes on behind closed doors. Many expressed dismay at our willingness to
break the laws which we consider to be unjust, to them this quote from Thoreau
in his famous essay 'On the Duty of Civil Disobedience. If a law is of such
nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I
say, break the law! Let your life be a counter friction to stop the machine.'' (FoA's
'Act-tionLine')
George T.
Angell
'I am sometimes asked 'Why do you spend so much of your time and money talking
about kindness to animals when there is so much cruelty to men?' I answer, 'I am
working at the roots!''
Sir
Wilfred Grenfell (1865-1940)
'Kindness to all God's creatures is an absolute rock-bottom necessity if peace
and righteousness are to prevail.' (The Adventure of Life)
Chinese
Book of Rewards and Punishments
Five paragraphs from the explanations of the
commandments: (1) Do not let your children make toys out of flies/butterflies or
birds. Such behavior results in injury to living creatures, but also it arouses
in young hearts an impulse to cruelty and murder. Stories illustrative of the
commandments: (2) The wife of a soldier named Fan was tuberculous and close to
death. She was ordered to eat the brains of 100 sparrows as a remedy. When she
saw the birds in the cage, she sighed and said: 'Must it be that 100 living
creatures are to be killed that I may be healed? I would rather die than permit
them to suffer.' She opened the cage and allowed them to fly away. Afterwards
she recovered from her illness. (3) Tsao-Pin lived in a ruined house. His
children begged him to have it repaired. He answered: 'In the cold winter the
cracks in the walls and the space between the tiles and between the stones
provide a shelter and a refuge to all kinds of living creatures. We should not
endanger their lives.' (4) Wu-Tang used to take his son hunting with him. One
day they came upon a stag that was playing with its young one. Tang took an
arrow and killed the young one. The frightened stag ran off with a cry of
anguish. When Tang concealed himself the stag returned and licked the wounds of
its fawn. Tang again drew his bow and killed it. He then saw another stag and
sent an arrow towards it, but the arrow was deflected and pierced his son. Tang
threw his bow away and tearfully embraced his dead son, when he heard a voice
from the air: 'Tang, the stag loved its fawn as much as you loved your son.' (5)
Meng-tse praises King Suan of Tsi because of his compassion in freeing an ox
that was to be sacrificed at the dedication of some bells. Such a sentiment, he
says, should suffice to make one king of the world. Monastic Taoism &
Kan-Ying-P'ien. From the commandments for monks: (1st): Thou shalt kill no
living thing nor do injury to its life. (2nd): Thou shalt not consume as food
the flesh and blood of any living creature. (34th): Thou shall not strike or
whip domestic animals. (35th): Thou shall not intentionally crush insects and
ants with thy foot. (36th): Thou shalt not play with hooks and arrows for thine
own amusement. (37th): Thou shalt not climb into trees to remove nests and to
destroy the eggs. (63rd): Thou shalt not catch birds and quadrupeds with snares
and nets. (64th): Thou shalt not frighten and scare away birds that are brooding
on their nests. (68th): Thou shalt not dig up during the winter months animals
hibernating in the earth. (112th): Thou shalt not pour hot water on the ground
in order to exterminate insects and ants.
'Animals
live by ethics!
(1) A flock of wild geese had settled to rest on a pond. One of
the flock is captured by a gardener who had clipped its wings. When the geese
started to resume their flight, this one tried frantically, but vainly, to lift
itself into the air. The others, observing its struggles, flew about in obvious
efforts to encourage it, but no use. The entire flock then settled back on the
pond and waited, even though the urge to go on was strong, for several days,
until the damaged feathers grew sufficiently to permit the goose to fly. (2) A
friend who owned a small cafe and used to throw crumbs for the sparrows, noticed
that one was injured and had difficulty getting about. But he was interested to
discover that the other sparrows would leave the crumbs which lay nearest their
crippled comrade so that he could get his share, undisturbed.'
'When so much mistreatment of animals continues, when the cries of thirsty
beasts from our railway cars die out unheard, when so much brutality prevails in
our slaughterhouses, when animals meet a painful death in our kitchens, when
animals suffer incredibly from merciless men and are turned over to the cruel
play of children, WE ALL
BEAR THE GUILT FOR IT. We are afraid of shocking people if we let it be noticed
how much we are moved by the suffering man brings to animals. We think that
others may have become more 'rational' than we, and may accept as customary and
as a matter of course the things we have gotten excited about. Once in a while,
however, a word suddenly slips out which shows that even they have not yet
become reconciled to this suffering. Now they come very close to us though they
were formerly strangers. The masks with which we were deceiving each other fall
off. Now we learn from each other that no one is able to escape the grip of the
cruelty that flourishes ceaselessly around us.'
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