Safety from being farmed

746: 

What I think has happened is that ‘animal groups’ have compromised their aims in order to keep in with the majority of vegetarians. Instead of protecting all animals they have decided to concentrate on ending factory farming. In that way they will maximize their support base. And no one could argue against that focus, to end the very worst of conditions animals suffer. But it never goes any further, to advocate the ending of all farming; if intensification is boycotted we will have just as many people eating dead animals and condoning the enslavement of animals even though their living conditions improve. 

The cancer is in the attitude of using animals, the speciesism behind the exploitation. All the time we regard animals as fair game we will find ways to get what we want from them with the least regard for them as individual beings. It’s like sending the kids down the mines but giving them safety helmets and lamps; we need to get t the root of the problem as to how the human can ever see it as acceptable to enslave animals.

I think we should go right out there to the extreme, to voice the ideal. To some it might seem impractical – a world without animal farming. Out of fear of seeming too radical we don’t dare to present the case for how things should be, according to the highest and most generous in the human spirit.

            My arguments about a ‘no-use-animal’ policy goes further than just improving animal welfare. It goes past seeing them as commodities and human property. It sees them as irreplaceable, sovereign individuals who need to be released from slavery. We need to think about them as we would an abused child in need of safety from a child-abuser. In their case it means safety from being ‘farmed’.