We who speak-up for animals are often told to zip-it. This isn’t the time to be concerned about other species, the argument goes. That’s tommyrot. We absolutely MUST NOT put animal abuse on the back burner.
INGRID NEWKIRK: ‘When human rights hang in the balance, we who speak up for animals are often told to zip it. This isn’t the time to be concerned about other species, the argument goes–we must first resolve the problems facing various members of our own species. That’s tommyrot. We absolutely must not put animal abuse on the back burner. More power to anyone fighting any form of prejudice or abuse, but injustice is not some narrow issue that you can only care about when it affects the group that you identify with the most closely…
Believing in justice means believing in principles, understanding how it affects more than just yourself, your family, your nation, your gender, and your race… Bullying and violence aren’t limited to acts against humans any more than they’re limited to acts against certain races or a single gender… As Connie Salamone, founder of New York’s Vegetarian Feminists’ Collective said, “It’s hard to argue for women’s rights when your mouth is full of the remains of a small tortured bird”…
A few years ago, scientists and philosophers issued the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness, calling on humanity to recognize the rights of other species and saying, “The weight of evidence indicates that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness. Nonhuman animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses, also possess [them]”.’ SOURCE…
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