Our Animal Rights Articles

From all-creatures.org
ARCHIVE OF COMMENTS AND DISCUSSIONS
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Our subjects cover: animals, religion (Christian, Jewish and others); diet and lifestyle (vegan and vegetarian); and other miscellaneous subjects.

Our Animal Rights Articles
Comments by Ruth Eisenbud - 4 May 2010

In Reference to: Say No to Sanctified Animal Abuse

Your defense of Kosher slaughter is astonishing. It seems you miss the point completely. Any form of slaughter is cruel. I assume you would not speak so glibly if it were humans being considered for slaughter. It is because of this oversight of Jewish values, that a full blown definition of compassion cannot be derived from teachings that consider animal lives disposable. Meaningful protection will not be derived from such teachingsā€¦

You cite Maimonides. Let me remind you the conditions of compassion described by Maimonides, allow for the slaughter of baby animals and their mothers, only on different days. You attempt to justify this because of the time and conditions in which he lives. May I remind you that when the Jains introduced the message of ahimsa: respect for the lives of ALL beings to the surrounding society conditions were no better, yet they had the courage to speak out against all slaughter and all animal sacrifice. Because of their moral integrity the situation is much improved for animals in India, though it did take a while for the message of ahimsa to take root. The existence of 400 million vegetarian is not a trivial accomplishment.

You claim we should not judge our ancestors, then I suggest that you not judge the ancestors of the current hindus as well, especially, since they now invoke ahimsa. This is not a question of attributing blame, but of finding the most effective model of animal compassion. Animals in the west have waited 5000 years. That is long enough. It is time to switch to a model which has resulted in ever increasing compassion since it was first introduced thousands of years ago by the Jains.

Despite all the nods to compassion in Jewish teachings, the results have been overwhelmingly unfavorable. There is no excuse for promoting a message of compassion for animals which allows for their harm and slaughter. Benevolent abuse is unacceptable.