Thank you for visiting our animal defence section. Before reading our main essay, please join us in a moment of compassion and reflection.
The wheels of business and human food compulsions are implacable and totally lacking in compassion. This is a downed cow, badly hurt, but still being dragged to slaughter. Click on this image to fully appreciate this horror repeated millions of times every day around the world. With plentiful non-animal meat substitutes that fool the palate, there is no longer reason for this senseless suffering. Meat consumption is a serious ecoanimal crime. The tyranny of the palate must be broken. Please consider changing your habits in this regard.
The innocence of animals is always an inspiration to those who seek a kinder and more just world.
This is the story of Pigeon. Let us hope it puts a smile and some warmth in your heart today.
BONUS FEATURE
Correcting human brutality
Hope these stories comfort your heart. If you can, help or contribute to any genuine animal defense group you know. From factory farming—by far the biggest, most urgent and horrendous animal issue— to hunting, furs, and dozens of other instances of humans' tyrannical treatment of animals and gross disregard for their right to live independent lives on this planet, there's no dearth of opportunity to do something to make this a more just world. Justice is indivisible, and justice to animals is the same as justice to humans. If you don't know of an animal group in your locality or national or international level you can support, drop us a line and we'll provide some suggestions.
An excellent resource for independent information about all kinds of animal issues is the ANIMAL PEOPLE FORUM, edited by Wolf Gordon Clifton. Make it a habit to visit this site to keep abreast of issues and developments in this important moral field.
—P. Greanville
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1 comment
The western animal rights movement is schizophrenic… On the one had there is a brouhaha when a dog with disabilities is given a new lease on life…. and on the other hand… millions of dogs who are healthy & young are killed with the blessings of religion and the law:
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.”
This moral schizophrenia is a function of dominion, an ethic that has proclaimed humans to be superior to all other animals, so that they may kill them with moral impunity. According to the judeo.christian ethic the slaughter of animals is a righteous activity, if done according to certain guidelines. Hence it is possible to kill million of dogs in dominionist kill shelters throughout the western world, even as some may be spared and even given extra care….
This schizophrenia for dogs does not exist in India, where it is always against the law to kill a healthy or treatable dog, including street dogs:
It is the fundamental duty of every citizen of India to have compassion for all living creatures. Article 51A(g). Indian Constitution
To kill or maim any animal, including stray animals, is a punishable offence. IPC Sections 428 and 429.
The view of animals in India is not guided by supremacist dominion, but by an ethic that has reverence for life: AHIMSA:
“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 found
in 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.” Prof. Andrew Linsey, Oxford University