Speciesism
“Speciesism can be viewed either as discrimination against individuals based on their species membership or as the ideology that gives rise to and is reinforced by it. Just as racists believe that members of their ethnic group are superior to others and sexists believe that men are superior to women, speciesists believe that some species of animals (usually their own) is better that others.
Speciesist arguments defend the use of nonhuman animals as resources for human benefit as well as discounting the interests of free living animals. The most common reasons given for this discrimination are simply that other animals are not human or that they are less intelligent than humans. Defenders of speciesism don’t deny that other animals suffer. They just think it’s okay to cause them harm if humans enjoy the benefits of harming other animals. They believe there is a hierarchy of worth and that the suffering of nonhuman animals matters less than human suffering.
Speciesism does not mean supporting cruelty for its own sake, but it does find cruelty acceptable if it is necessary in order to use nonhuman animals. An example of a speciesist belief is the belief that it’s acceptable to breed and kill other animals in order to use their body parts for food. Since it has been well established that a plant food diet is healthy for people at all stages of life (with rare exceptions), choosing to eat the body parts and secretions of other animals as a food source is a choice made for pleasure or to avoid social discomfort.
Most of us would not choose to eat human flesh no matter how good it tasted, and since other animals suffer as much as humans would when they are confined and slaughtered, any arguments made to defend this practice are speciesist.
Speciesist views include giving different moral consideration to different nonhuman species for arbitrary reasons. For example, would you eat dog flesh? Why not? What about pig flesh? What’s the morally relevant characteristic that makes it okay for us to eat pigs and consider a dog a part of our family? Vegans embrace all life, whether it is your Uncle Ned, your neighbor's dog Charlie or the cow, pig, turkey, chicken, sheep, horse that is residing at Old McDonald's farm. We value the life of all animals in all areas of the earth whether they live in Africa or the Atlanta Ocean. We as Vegans have moral integrity and we go further in not only respecting an animal's right to existence and the freedom from fear and suffering, but we also respect, value and protect the terrain all of us living creatures calls home.
There is absolutely NO rationalization on killing animals for food or any other purpose to benefit humans or any other animal. We certainly do not condone animal farms that try to convince us that they pet the animals and feed it good food before they slice their necks and chop them up into little bitty pieces of food. That mind concept is no different than a child molester taking their victims to Disneyland before they commit their egregious acts. There is NO such thing as a compassionate slaughterhouse or a humanitarian zoo or a sportsman hunter.
I have always put myself in the other's situation. When I pass a homeless man, I not only have compassion for him but I put myself in his place or it could be my son, my friend, my brother. When I see an animal being raised for food or a fish being pulled in with a six inch hook embedded in its belly, I think to myself that I could be the hunted or my family and how would I feel; the fear, the pain, the suffering, the anguish and the indignity of being raised for someone else's appetite.
We often read where a mountain lion has killed a hiker or a bear has attacked a campsite or a shark has eaten a surfer. How angry we all are and sad. But do we feel that same compassion for the packaged body parts of a cow or a chicken when we walk through a supermarket? Do we think about the fact that it was a baby at one time and the mother that gave birth loved it. Do we think for a moment that that animal was taken from that mother and thrown into a small confined dark cage, experiencing fear, pain and loneliness. Do we think for a moment that that nicely wrapped piece of a leg or a shoulder with the parsley placed on top might have endured months, maybe years of pain and extreme trauma.
Ask the next meat eater if he thinks of any of that and what if it was his child that was grabbed and injected with painful hormones and antibiotics only to one day be on the fork of a carnivore with a dab of Hollandaise sauce...”
Speciesist arguments defend the use of nonhuman animals as resources for human benefit as well as discounting the interests of free living animals. The most common reasons given for this discrimination are simply that other animals are not human or that they are less intelligent than humans. Defenders of speciesism don’t deny that other animals suffer. They just think it’s okay to cause them harm if humans enjoy the benefits of harming other animals. They believe there is a hierarchy of worth and that the suffering of nonhuman animals matters less than human suffering.
Speciesism does not mean supporting cruelty for its own sake, but it does find cruelty acceptable if it is necessary in order to use nonhuman animals. An example of a speciesist belief is the belief that it’s acceptable to breed and kill other animals in order to use their body parts for food. Since it has been well established that a plant food diet is healthy for people at all stages of life (with rare exceptions), choosing to eat the body parts and secretions of other animals as a food source is a choice made for pleasure or to avoid social discomfort.
Most of us would not choose to eat human flesh no matter how good it tasted, and since other animals suffer as much as humans would when they are confined and slaughtered, any arguments made to defend this practice are speciesist.
Speciesist views include giving different moral consideration to different nonhuman species for arbitrary reasons. For example, would you eat dog flesh? Why not? What about pig flesh? What’s the morally relevant characteristic that makes it okay for us to eat pigs and consider a dog a part of our family? Vegans embrace all life, whether it is your Uncle Ned, your neighbor's dog Charlie or the cow, pig, turkey, chicken, sheep, horse that is residing at Old McDonald's farm. We value the life of all animals in all areas of the earth whether they live in Africa or the Atlanta Ocean. We as Vegans have moral integrity and we go further in not only respecting an animal's right to existence and the freedom from fear and suffering, but we also respect, value and protect the terrain all of us living creatures calls home.
There is absolutely NO rationalization on killing animals for food or any other purpose to benefit humans or any other animal. We certainly do not condone animal farms that try to convince us that they pet the animals and feed it good food before they slice their necks and chop them up into little bitty pieces of food. That mind concept is no different than a child molester taking their victims to Disneyland before they commit their egregious acts. There is NO such thing as a compassionate slaughterhouse or a humanitarian zoo or a sportsman hunter.
I have always put myself in the other's situation. When I pass a homeless man, I not only have compassion for him but I put myself in his place or it could be my son, my friend, my brother. When I see an animal being raised for food or a fish being pulled in with a six inch hook embedded in its belly, I think to myself that I could be the hunted or my family and how would I feel; the fear, the pain, the suffering, the anguish and the indignity of being raised for someone else's appetite.
We often read where a mountain lion has killed a hiker or a bear has attacked a campsite or a shark has eaten a surfer. How angry we all are and sad. But do we feel that same compassion for the packaged body parts of a cow or a chicken when we walk through a supermarket? Do we think about the fact that it was a baby at one time and the mother that gave birth loved it. Do we think for a moment that that animal was taken from that mother and thrown into a small confined dark cage, experiencing fear, pain and loneliness. Do we think for a moment that that nicely wrapped piece of a leg or a shoulder with the parsley placed on top might have endured months, maybe years of pain and extreme trauma.
Ask the next meat eater if he thinks of any of that and what if it was his child that was grabbed and injected with painful hormones and antibiotics only to one day be on the fork of a carnivore with a dab of Hollandaise sauce...”
Through Veganism group on facebook
the BIG PICTURE version:Supremacism, elitism, specism, racism, how it all began
http://agnvegglobal.blogspot.com/2011/11/agn-veg-global-red-pill-how-it-all.html
HUMAN ANIMAL ELITISM SUPREMACISM SPECISM RACISM origins in PICTURES
PLANETARY HEALING from the GROUND UP
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