SAFE CONNECTIONS
An Update from SAFE
ANNOUNCING...
A new discussion board has
been added to SAFE's website! The intention of
the discussion board is to stimulate ideas as well as to provide a forum for
people to share their own experiences with their process of shifting their
beliefs toward other-than-human animals. We also envision it to
be a place where people can go for support as they shift their lifestyle to one
of less and less detriment to animals and the world.
We have started off with two
topics. We invite you to participate in the discussions.
Please go to SAFE's website at www.animalequality.org
and select "Forums" in the left sidebar menu.
No matter if you have been living a
vegan lifestyle for years, or you are just contemplating making the shift, we
hope you'll join us.
IN THE NEWS
"Some
animals are more equal than others"
By William Saletan
The National Post (f/k/a The Financial Post)
SECTION: ISSUES & IDEAS; Pg. A19
August 23, 2005
Do animals deserve the same respect as black people?
That's the question posed in an online exhibit by People for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals (PETA). The exhibit pairs a slave auction with a cattle auction, two
hanging black men with a hanging steer, herded native Americans with herded
cattle, a burning black man with a burning chicken, a shackled black ankle with
a chained elephant hoof, and a pygmy in a zoo with a monkey in a dress.
The introduction includes a quote from Alice Walker that says animals
"were not made for humans any more than black people were made for
whites." A quote from Peter Singer says the suffering of enslaved animals
"can only be compared with that which resulted from the centuries of
tyranny by white humans over black humans."
"What is the common link between all atrocities in our society's
past?" asks the opening paragraph. "The African slave trade, the
massacre and displacement of Native Americans, the oppression of women, and
forced child labour, were the products of a dangerous
belief that those with power have the right to abuse those without it."
The text concludes that "our generation still operates in the same way.
The only difference is that yesterday's victims -- used and abused because they
were 'different' and powerless -- are now of other species."
You can imagine why the exhibit has upset some people. They think it's racist.
They're wrong. Racism draws invalid distinctions. PETA does the opposite: It
omits valid distinctions. It equates animals, blacks and whites, because it
misunderstands the nature and history of equality. Abuses of blacks, native Americans and women were products of a belief in
subordinating the inferior, not the powerless. We learned to respect others not
for their disabilities but for their abilities. That's why we'll come around
eventually -- and only partially -- to animal rights.
I say this as an animal rights sympathizer. If you ask yourself which practices
of our age may come to be seen in hindsight as wrongs we didn't yet comprehend,
the increasingly unnecessary killing of higher animals for food is high on the
list. But PETA's appeals to pity and piety don't help.
Its exhibit accuses our "human-dominated society" of
"tyranny," "exploitation," "cruelty" and an
"oppressive mentality." It charges that we "take advantage of
our power over [animals] for the sake of pleasure and profit." It bleats
that they're "powerless," "weaker" and "unable to
defend themselves." It asks us to be "compassionate,"
"caring" and "defend ... oppressed groups."
This isn't how white people came to accept racial equality. Racial Attitudes in
By 1977, when NORC began asking people to assess various explanations of
persistent social inequality, the percentage of whites who asserted black
inferiority had plummeted. Over the next 19 years, the authors note,
'Two of the explanations exhibit highly significant trends in opposite
directions. Inborn ability as an explanation was not heavily chosen (26%) even
in 1977 when the set of questions was first asked, and by 1996 it was agreed to
by only 10% of the white population. Taken alone, this decrease might well
suggest that explanations in terms of 'discrimination' have found increasing
support within the white population. On the contrary, discrimination is also
mentioned decreasingly, and significantly so, over time."
In other words, whites didn't accept blame for blacks' problems. What they
accepted was that blacks had equal ability.
Something like that will gradually happen between humans and animals. Not the
equality part -- sorry, PETA -- but the ability part. Every week we learn
something new about animal brainpower. Crows fashion leaves and metal into
tools. Ravens understand spying. Pigeons deceive each other. Rats run mazes in
their dreams. Prairie dogs make different sounds to denote different animals.
Dolphins teach their young to use sponges as protection. Elephants can mimic
trucks. Chimps can pick locks. Parrots can work with numbers. Dogs can learn
words from context. Caterpillars can build webs to catch snails. Octopuses can
use some arms to disguise themselves while using other arms to sneak away.
As technology makes it easier to do without animals for food and labour -- a trend illustrated by cars in the present, and laboratory-grown meat in the future -- our
increasing awareness of animal intelligence will prod us to give up the worst
offences, starting with butchery of higher mammals. We won't do this because we
pity them for being locked up. We'll do it because we respect them for picking
locks. And we'll still use chimps to test our drugs, because the faculties
worth respecting in them are that much more powerful in us. "We Are All
Animals," PETA pleads in the title of its exhibit. Yes, we are. But some
animals are more equal than others.
SAFE submitted the following response to this article.
Unfortunately it was not chosen to be published:
Letter to the National Post re: “Some animals are more equal than
others” article by William Saletan, Aug. 23, 2005
Aug. 24, 2005
Dear Editor:
The intelligence and ability argument to determine what rights we
recognize of another species is flawed on many levels. For one thing, not all humans are of equal
intelligence and ability. So if we used
that argument to determine a person’s rights, would that mean then that we are
all on some kind of a scale of more or less deserving of certain freedoms? Of course not.
Another reason this logic is flawed is that humans are not at the
pinnacle of all intelligence and ability.
Every species has special qualities that are not matched by
another. These two reasons alone
demonstrate that we cannot use such an argument for the rights we decide to
afford another species.
There is no scale or hierarchy.
One day we will evolve to see and treat all living beings as equal
because we will accept, and respect, the fact that we all have an equal right
to live a free life, regardless of intelligence, race, or species.
Sincerely,
Marianne Verigin, Founder & President
Society for Animal Freedom and Equality
(SAFE)
PO Box 44143
Burnaby, BC V5B 4Y2
Phone: 778-371-8229
Email: safe@animalequality.org
Website: www.animalequality.org
* * *
* * * *
The Society for Animal Freedom &
Equality (SAFE) is a registered non-profit
organization dedicated to protecting animals from human exploitation by
stimulating a shift in human perceptions toward animals. SAFE promotes a
vegan lifestyle as an expression of those emerging values.
Please contact SAFE if you have any
questions, to get more involved, or to make a donation:
phone: 778-371-8229
email: SAFE@animalequality.org
website: www.animalequality.org