A common objection posed by meat-eaters to considering a vegetarian diet is that “plants have feelings” which may be comparable to the feelings of animals, or that the result of a vegetarian diet is for more plants to die than animals and thus the net amount of killing is somehow equal.
The logo of the Animal People Forum includes a stylized version of the Chinese character 仁. Pronounced “Ren” in English, it signifies in Confucian spiritual philosophy an aspect of human nature that emerges in relation to others, including animals.
For more than a decade and with many others, I have been trying to think through the multiple entanglements between human and non-human joys and suffering. Our thinking about human issues necessarily involves thinking about animal issues. Similarly, considering animals expands our understanding of the world around us including some of the most pressing issues at hand, such as climate change, food justice, racial violence, and colonial legacies of dispossession and environmental degradation.
Would you believe dog treat sales in the U.S. were $2.6 billion a year in 2013? Unfortunately, today most American dogs are overweight, likely due to too little exercise and copious amounts of high calorie food. It doesn’t have to be that way. My two dogs compel us to take more walks and move around. Of course they get fired up over food and frequent dog treats. But by making a variety of healthy, delectable biscuits you can spare dogs the troubling ingredients found in most commercial treats, and the icing on the biscuit…you can also save money.
ACTAsia raises awareness about the exploitation of people, animals and the environment in consumer product industries. With China being the largest producer of fur in the world, it is now more than ever of paramount importance to cultivate compassionate consumers who will choose an alternative and cruelty free lifestyle.
…
Swim deep, little seal
Man is here
Here with his nets and his clubs
Your ballet of grace means nothing to him
Dive to the sunless sea and do not return…
Instead of contributing to the development of sustainable, healthy farming systems, veterinarians have become servants of the industrial farming machine. Vets no longer see animals as their clients, they see the person who signs their salary check. We need vets to rediscover their original mission – animal welfare. Vets have the power to change the system for good. It’s hard to understand why medical professionals who specialize in treating animals actively contribute to their pain and terror.
For some Abolitionists, all campaigns focusing on particular animals – in this case chickens used for Kaporos – frustrate the ultimate, worldwide goal of Abolition, Animal Rights, and Veganism. My organization, United Poultry Concerns, promotes the compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl. This makes us a “single issue” or “single class of animals” organization. Does our focus on chickens and turkeys hamper efforts to liberate all animals from all forms of oppression everywhere on the planet?
The biomedical research community has already agreed in principle that scientific use of animals should be subject to rigorous scientific review… If the practices and regulations… were changed or amended so that scientific use of animals were to be conducted in an improved and strict manner regarding the welfare of animals, we believe that animal advocates would agree not to interfere with such research or specifically object to it through targeted campaigns.
When I walk in the woods,
I am at peace.
I am at home.
And, yet,
Sadness is always there
Because I know
In every thorn patch,
Every hillock,
Every thicket,
Hide living beings,
Shy and fearful
Of me and my fellow man….
The ethical traveler now needs to take decisions that change the world. To decide where to go for their holidays. And if they decide not to go to a particular state and country, to actually let the travel agency and country know why they are not going.
The Buddha may or may not have taught vegetarianism, but there is no excuse in any Buddhist tradition for temples to serve meat to followers.