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Introduction To Animal Rights

Introduction To Animal Rights

1. The Broad Setting

More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroad which will determine the future existence of all the earths inhabitants. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly.

The Big Problem

Humans have been killing animals for millennia and now scientists acknowledge that we are living in a mass extinction of life caused by humanity. Added to this is an animal holocaust in which increasing numbers of people endlessly demand animals to eat, wear, kill for sport, experiment on, and more. In almost anyone’s definition this is a man made disaster – a war on animals – undeclared and devastatingly carried out. This war on animals shouts for action. Animals need allies and making active allies for animals is what this online course is about.

Being Active

To be active for animal rights all you need to be is an ordinary person. You do not have to be an ‘animal rights terrorist’ (see Chapter 5), the stereotype bogeyman of the news media. The media’s animal rights archetype is a rare creature because for every bogey animal rights terrorist there is a multitude of concerned people from all walks of life doing their bit for animals. You, too, whether city financier, unemployed anarchist or domestic granny, can make your contribution and be a real ally of animals.

The Best Animal Rights Attitude

As an animal rights activist your attitudes and values will inevitably clash with those of other people. This is where you have to determine what your beliefs are based on. Confused beliefs, inaccurate views and misconceptions fill our minds. The distinguished French writer Francois-Marie Arouet (1694 – 1778), popularly known as Voltaire, is credited with saying, “If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities.” One of the most disturbing visions in the history of human progress is the specter of the early vivisectors nailing live animals onto dissection boards to cut them open at leisure and see how they worked…before the era of anesthetics. The vivisectors conveniently believed that animals do not feel pain even though animals behave as though they do.

So what is our best attitude for being active for animals? Surely it is always to question what we know, try to understand what we do not know and keep a healthy skepticism about what people tell us. Having the right attitude demands that we constantly question our beliefs, especially when we think we are right, and never be complacent (for more see Chapter 2). This is especially important when we consider the moral place of animals.

The Expanding Circle

Expanding the circle is an evocative metaphor that captures the progress of humanity as a moral species. It is a phrase coined by the Irish historian and philosopher William Lecky (1838 – 1903) and means that humanity is enfolding more beings in its group as worthy of respect and moral consideration. Lecky writes: “At one time the benevolent affections embrace merely the family, soon the circle expanding includes first a class, then nation, then a coalition of nations, then all humanity and finally, its influence is felt in the dealings of man with the animal world…”

Lecky’s statue stands neglected outside the University of Dublin as his reputation gathers dust. Yet the moral circle is expanding. Only a few generations ago slaves were excluded from the core of human society and women were marginalized. Slavery and domestic servitude were accepted as social norms.

So how close are we to accepting animals within the expanding circle? It is apt that the distinguished animal liberation philosopher Peter Singer (see Chapter 6) invoked Lecky’s metaphor as the title of his book The Expanding Circle. Singer reasons that indeed the human moral circle is beginning to embrace animals, confirmed by the existence of the numerous and growing number of people fighting for animal lib. Nevertheless, even with Singer’s optimism and energy we still have a long way to journey toward the day when humanity finally accepts animals within its moral circle.

The Great Leap

A good reason for allying ourselves with animals and including them in our moral circle is for their sake. Looking beyond that, another good reason is humanity is about to make a great leap into the future. Blasting off into space, deciphering genomes and implanting synthetic parts in our bodies are some of the signs of this impending leap. They signal that we are saying good-bye to our organic roots based on natural selection and are entering a new phase of evolution based on science and technology. We are shaping a transformation of humanity into a super-being that will be unrecognizable to present generations (assuming humanity and science survive the next hundred years). However, we must not allow our future-being to ravage every creature it meets for its own ends, in the present style of humanity. We must instill in it an enlightened and compassionate morality to be a powerful force for good in the universe. To this end we must about to expand our circle of moral consideration to encompass all creatures, whatever and wherever they are.