Vegan Parenting: When compassion gets called ‘indoctrination’
Vegan Parenting: When compassion gets called ‘indoctrination’
There is a difference between guilt and conscience, between shame and moral awareness, between indoctrination and age-appropriate truth-telling. We should be careful about using ‘indoctrination’ only for minority beliefs. A child raised to hunt, fish, eat animals, attend rodeos, visit zoos, or see some animals as pets and others as products is being taught values. A child raised vegan is also being taught values. Children are allowed to have moral feelings. They are allowed to feel sad when they learn that animals are hurt, to ask why humans do the things we do, to object to cages, to say no, and […]
GET REAL: Misleading portrayals of farmed animals on television matter
GET REAL: Misleading portrayals of farmed animals on television matter
Television frequently presents farmed animals as unintelligent, interchangeable commodities rather than as individuals with distinct personalities, preferences, social relationships and emotional lives. Scientific understanding of animal cognition and behavior has developed dramatically over recent decades, yet public portrayals often lag behind the evidence. Where evidence demonstrates complexity, intelligence and emotional capacity, those realities should not be obscured, minimized or cast into doubt without justification. It should also accurately portray the conditions animals are kept in. Television should reflect what we know about animals, not what tradition, convenience or cultural habit has led us to assume about them. EDIE BOWLES: Television does more […]
Dismantling the Hierarchy of Bias: Affirming equal moral worth for all beings
Dismantling the Hierarchy of Bias: Affirming equal moral worth for all beings
Humanity’s perception of animals is shaped by a complex hierarchy of biases inherited through culture, religion, indoctrination, and social conditioning. At the foundation of this system is the belief that humans hold the highest moral value. Anthropocentrism teaches us that human worth is paramount, while the lives of other beings are secondary. It is why human suffering is treated as tragedy, while animal suffering is dismissed as ‘negligable’. When we dismantle the hierarchy, we dismantle the illusion of supremacy. And in doing so, we begin to build a world where every being is valued for its existence, not its utility. ROLAND […]
