Animal Sanctuaries

1978:

In the long term, the animals, what of them? What’s to become of them? Do we retire all of them? Do we restrict their breeding to prevent their numbers expanding? It would certainly be costly even if there were a decline in meat eating and if animals were no longer being bred into existence.

At first, I imagine, the move to retire and protect the ones still alive be done in the spirit of atonement. There would need to be special funding, perhaps a special tax to pay for it all. But how would people respond to such a tax in these economically and ecologically straightened times? It’s hard enough to stir people into agreeing to a carbon tax, to help reduce global warming, but an animal tax to save animals from exploitation!!! That would need a whole different attitude to our animal charges, who are presently treated with no consideration at all.

Attitudes will change as people no longer have an interest in the farming of animals or the provision of meat and dairy products. Then and only then will our attention be trained on doing something for these poor animals.

Perhaps it’s quite hard to imagine this brand new human being, inspired by a new set of ethics. But with enough real vegan eating becoming the norm, people will naturally come to detest exploitation. They’ll want to disassociate from their primitive forebears, and make a point of saving animals, in much the same way that we do today, with abused cats and dogs.

The setting up of safe houses, or rather animal sanctuaries, might not be such a money-burden after all. Imagine the savings made and all the other advantages of a meatless society. Apart from ending the killing, the advantages to our health would be dramatic. For young people especially, to have a renewed contact with animals, to work voluntarily for them, to enjoy their company on the nearby refuge - the turning of attitude would coincide with a strong wish for a more intelligent and peaceful world. As ‘refusniks’, who no longer eat meat, and no longer ‘do’ war, our society could break through to an altered state of consciousness, the results of which we can hardly imagine with our concreted-in mind-sets of today. But how the human is already dramatically changing, making the idea of creating sanctuaries for farm animals not as far fetched as the idea at first seems.