Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Moral Schizophrenia

Carole Reckinger | 04.03.2007 18:51 | Animal Liberation | London | World

An analysis into our relationship with animals

We adore our dogs and cats, are mad about animated films such as Finding Nemo and Ice Age and nevertheless our behavior towards animals in general shows of our deep insensitivity in the face of their great suffering.

Billions of animals suffer every day because of us humans. Animals are turned into food, clothing, are used for sport, entertainment, experimentation and trade. According to the American ministry of Agriculture, the United States alone slaughters more than 800 million animals per year destined for human consumption. These animals are treated like objects and commodities and in large scale factories they endure their short lives under the worst and most horrific circumstances. The old slogan that says that if slaughterhouses would have glass windows, most of us would become vegetarians probably (or rather hopefully?) still holds true. When we walk through the supermarket aisles we can pick up a clean and neatly packed piece of flesh and not much reminds us of their former shape, or even the fact that our dinner once actually was a living being and that the chances are great that it had to suffer greatly for our 15 minute delight.

In the face of this everyday genocide it is rather bizarre that we humans have chosen a few of those non-humans to become our closest companions. Some of us consider our dogs and cats as members of the family, we give them the best and most expensive food, we take them to specialized hairdressers and clinics and we can buy them designer coats and special seat belts for the car. Many of these humanized dogs share their bed with their master, are taken on family holidays and seas of tears are shed when they finally die of old age.

How is it that people cringe when they hear that the Chinese eat dogs, while chewing on a cow? What is the moral difference between eating a baby sheep and a dog? Why do we in the West give so many privileges to our few chosen companions and ignore everything else? Why should a dog be treated differently from a pig? Where is the moral logic behind this?

Generally the suffering of animals is taken as a “necessary evil” for the well being of us humans. We need to raise them for our food production, we need to test our medicines and pharmaceuticals on it, we need to kill them for fashion, but on the other hand we love them. We try to teach our children respect for animals, and only few of us would advocate that torturing animals is acceptable. But the again, the torturing goes on behind closed doors, and it is easy to shut our eyes, and pretend we didn’t know.

We claim to take the suffering of non-humans seriously. There is a virtual agreement that it is morally wrong to inflict "unnecessary" suffering or death on our non-human cohabitants. The paradox however, is that although we express disapproval of the unnecessary suffering of animals, most of their suffering and death can be justified only by our pleasure, amusement or convenience. Most of this mass murder cannot by any stretch be plausibly characterized as "necessary".
When it comes to non-humans, we exhibit what can best be described as moral schizophrenia. We say one thing about how animals should be treated, and do quite another. If we took seriously the principle that it was wrong to inflict unnecessary suffering on non-humans, we would stop altogether bringing domestic animals into existence for human use. When using our power to inflict suffering and try to convince ourselves of different reasoning why don’t we start to take seriously what Jeremy Bentham said over 200 years ago: "The question is not, can they reason, nor can they talk, but can they suffer?" .

Carole Reckinger
- e-mail: carole81@gmail.com

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech