People will go from discussing the necessity of protecting indigenous human populations and jump right over the farmed animals of the world and talk about the urgency to save trees, rocks and bodies of water. The bodies of living feeling sentient farmed animals are usually ignored. Wild animals are lumped in with the environment and are usually considered important to protect only as they are natural resources.
The analogy of animal slavery and human slavery is even more profound when you realize that the same mechanisms of thought are being utilized by the oppressors.
The notion of animals as property, the notion of these animals (including human animals at the time of slavery) not being members of the moral community and the grasping to a belief system that is false. That non human animals do not suffer or care if they are killed.
As animal rights advocates we need to demand rational thought from humans concerned about the world we all live in and demand it on the subject of non human rights.
We need to start with requiring the same criteria we use in fighting for human rights as with animals, which requires focusing on the subjectivity of the individuals concerned.
For instance…Why is human slavery wrong?
Because the humans enslaved do not want to be slaves and they desire their freedom.
Non human animals are no different in feeling.. just different in being able to articulate those demands in human language.
Mary…I think your atheism and veganism connection can be immediately referenced here as well as the plant rights discussion from yesterdays post on this blog… and it will help bring my comment here to a merciful and quick end …
Because we animal advocates don’t always demand that the happiness and suffering of an individual be counted as what is most important in the rights argument what happens is we allow other humans to make insane claims about what is supposedly important in protecting.
There are many humans for instance who would fight to the death to protect an ancient rock formation, a Terry Schiavo’s right to live or one old growth redwood tree to not be felled… yet allow 53 billion land animals to be slaughtered for food every year without a worry.