Saving Kittens: Acts of Kindness that Almost Redeem Our Species.

If we hope against hope that someone seeing cutsie videos will suddenly become enlightened, then we do not understand the pernicious nature of biblical dominion…These videos may make us feel so good… but in reality they act as a white wash, a thin veneer of compassion over the brutal reality of genesis:

Genesis 9:1-3 “The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.'”

Those seeking to preserve the cynical view that animals were put on earth for man to consume, exploit and destroy… grant us our token kitten rescues. A few contrived exceptions to the rule that somehow make the violence seem more palatable. They seem to imply that the right to inspire ‘dread and fear’ in animal kind is not so bad after all.

It is this charade which enables the dark underbelly of dominion to persist and thrive. Dominion allows for a show of compassion to certain animals, under limited conditions. It has neither breath nor depth.

So long as we remain committed to the the idea that animal lives do not have intrinsic worth, that compassion is conditioned on human need, then we are playing right into the hands of the enforcers of dominion: the religious leaders of the judeo.christian heritage.

As we gloat over the few instances of compassion allowed by dominion, we mock the lives of the millions of cats and dogs that are killed every year in shelters in western nations, particularly the USA. How many of those praising the scenes in these videos, do so with a hamburger on their plate? Such is the nature of dominion: slaughter one, save the other.

To date in the history of man, there is only one ethic which does not consider compassion to be a few well meaning photo ops, but is committed to the deep understanding that All, living beings, not just cute kittens ,are worthy of care, respect and protection. Ahimsa, is unequivocal:

“For there is nothing inaccessible for death.
All beings are fond of life, hate pain, like pleasure,
shun destruction, like life, long to live. To all life
is dear.” Jain Acharanga Sutra.

“These words of the venerable Mahavir found in the
Acharanga Sutra are some of the profoundest ever foundin a religious scripture. They are a result of a
tremendous but simple spiritual discovery: all life is
holy, sacred or God-given. Life, therefore, has
intrinsic values – and all that lives has an interest
in living.

…in Christianity there is the idea that love
will finally triumph over violence. But only
Jainism has made ahimsa its central doctrine. It alone has consistently held the vision of a peaceable world, realisable by moral effort and spiritual discipline.”

Reverend Andrew Linsey

There is only one sure way to end the reign of terror legitimized in gnesis: end support for the religions that must preserve dominion, for political and financial gain, no matter the cost to animal lives. So long as we delude ourselves into believing that inspirational kitten rescue videos will change the intention of dominion, we perpetuate the violence we claim to abhor.