Original thought

If original thought frightens most people, it’s probably because it means questioning things once thought watertight. And then, as soon as we start to re-examine one thing, a whole lot of other things come into question. This is why the animal question stirs up so much fear – where will it all end if animals are no longer there to eat or be used? What will happen if we start to respect them and recognise their individuality? If we give them the same right to a life as we grant to our own species it will be a crime to assault them in any way.
Many of us do see animals this way. And certainly we wouldn’t condone anyone hurting them, because they are peaceful and they represent perhaps the most benign sentience on the planet. The cow, the chicken, the pig, the goat, the duck, they are all quite harmless. They have a no-damage-no aggression approach to life. For those of us with eyes to see, it’s not difficult to appreciate their inner beauty. Animals appear dignified, perhaps because they aren’t corrupted or guilty of anything, whereas the same can’t be said of humans. Is it possible that we can’t tolerate anything that puts us in a bad light? Or that we can’t bear the idea that animals are more highly evolved than us, in this respect.
So what do we do? Admit our shortcomings and atone? Not likely! Instead we go to war with them and make their life a misery. We execute them and then EAT them! And to show even greater contempt for them, some well respected people like research scientists are capable of even worse acts. Our ability to abuse animals to satisfy some strong urge in us is not unlike the powerful urge of the sexual predator against vulnerable women and children.
Because we’ve done so much damage to animals we should study and emulate them. For a start we should alter our food and commodity buying habits which exploit the animal population, and get used to living from plant-based foods as they do. (Almost all animals we exploit for food are herbivores). And then we should set up safe havens for those animals presently kept captive.