Theft

931: 

Getting something for nothing is attractive. Getting something given is wonderful. But taking, that’s something else. May I take what isn’t mine?  Some theft is almost okay but other, greater theft, can be quite immoral, or illegal?

As kids we lived near orchards, and at the end of summer the trees were laden with apples. We’d go out ‘scrumping’ them, and that means theft. But, as they say, stolen fruit tastes sweetest. Kids scrumping apples from orchards is stealing, but we saw it simply as wanting to ‘get away with it’. We planned it. We knew how not to get caught.

But stealing and taking what isn’t mine – that’s what we’re looking at here. It could be kids stealing apples. Or more seriously it could be stealing the most precious thing anyone can have, life. Nothing could be more serious than that, and yet in our society we steal that when we take the whole life of billions of animals. And that might be bad enough, but we compound the wrong of it by taking only what is easy. This is no-risk theft.

Animals are easy in this way. They’re docile, imprison-able, and biologically impelled to produce useful products for humans. The farmer sees them merely as a business opportunity, especially since animals, however badly they are treated, can be relied on to produce what we want most. We keep animals for their secretions and their carcasses. We can casually steal from animals because there’s no one to answer to. It’s legal and they can easily be overpowered. This is no-risk theft. Perfect!