Myth # 80 : " But they are only animals ." ( also known as " But animals are stupid .")
Myth # 80 : " But they are only animals ." ( also known as " But animals are stupid .")
This particular argument , embarrassingly enough , was actually employed by myself for many years to justify my own meat-eating . And on its face , my reasoning ( and the reasoning of all meat-eaters who still believe this myth ) was sound enough . After all , animals are clearly “ less intelligent ” than humans , which led me to logically assume that animals weren ’ t as aware of their own existence , which then allowed me to logically assume that animals couldn ’ t experience as much distress when confined , couldn ’ t experience as much pain when “ processed ”, and couldn ’ t experience as much suffering when murdered .
Well , my Friends , to put it mildly – this was nothing more than simple & flagrant ignorance on my part . Even though it has now been conclusively proven that cows & chickens are as intelligent as human toddlers , and even though science has now clearly shown that pigs are far more intelligent than our beloved dogs ( and even smarter than many of our own beloved children ), “ intelligence ” is not a proper bellwether for justifying another being ’ s murder … Indeed , when it comes to excusing the mass killing of our animal cousins , their intelligence ( or perceived lack thereof ) should have nothing at all do with it . Otherwise it would be perfectly acceptable for us to imprison or enslave or execute all our fellow humans who we deemed ( or who our friends were to deem , or who our government were to deem , or who our church were to deem ) to be too " dense ", too " ignorant " or even too " wrong " …
And so I wonder : if it is acceptable to kill animals simply because they are “ stupid ”, is it also acceptable for us to euthanize the mentally ill – or the very old – or the intellectually incapacitated ? And if it is OK for us to murder animals because they are culturally or mentally “ less than ” us , is it then also acceptable for us to abort human fetuses late in a pegnancy ’ s third trimester – when their lives are clearly less mentally viable than any conscious animal ’ s already born ? Should we really be allowed to kill off anyone or anything we deem to be “ dumb enough ”?
Of course not !
“ Differences in cognitive abilities do not in any way justify using someone as a slave .”~ Sally Thompson
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