Even though I thought about and contemplated social justice issues for years, I did not connect all the dots. I didn’t fully consider the nonhuman animals. Indeed, I stopped consuming chickens and meat at a relatively young age because I thought I loved animals and how can you eat the flesh of creatures you love? But, I didn’t think about the big picture of animal status in our society.
Dedicated to my beloved father, Israel Katz, 1924-2002
Superiority. Exploitation. Injustice. Violence. Those loaded words
are front and center in our lives. I care deeply about those issues.
It was my family’s history that initially ignited my thinking and
shaped my views about them. It eventually led me to my passion and
activism for the ultimate victims, the nonhuman animals.
Picture courtesy of Sue Coe: Auschwitz Begins… Copyright © 2009
Sue Coe, Courtesy Galerie St. Etienne, New York
Early in life I learned that my father, the man I loved and admired
for his intellect, moral values, strong ethics, and uniqueness, was
viewed by an entire society as inferior and subhuman. As such, not
even 20 years old, he was subjected to torture, imprisonment, and
harsh enslavement in forced labor camps. His entire family was
murdered. The personal trauma of knowing all that deeply affected me
and informed my worldview. From a young age I realized the extent of
cruelty ordinary people are capable of when they conveniently deem
others “inferior”.
Later on I realized that a sense of superiority isn’t only a mere
outlet for humans’ cruelty, it’s also very opportunistic. The Nazi
propaganda used falsehoods and stereotypes to further demonize and
portray Jews, such as my father, as subhuman. That in turn served as
a fertile ground to seed and bring to fruition their self serving
agenda. The Nazis and their collaborators killed two-thirds of the 9
million European Jews, and millions of others whom they labeled
inferior. They stole their property, and used the strong and able
bodies as slave labor to build their economy, infrastructure and war
machine. But as David Livingstone Smith, the director of the
Institute for Cognitive Science and Evolutionary Psychology at the
University of New England said in his NPR interview, the Nazis were
not madmen or monsters, they were ordinary human beings.
It’s clear to me that the treatment of African Americans in the U.S.
bears similar hallmarks. Whites used fabrications and stereotypes to
create and support the unfounded myth of black inferiority, so they
could take advantage of blacks. It manifested initially in slavery,
and during Jim Crow, and to this day, through institutionalized
racism. If you are white and your ancestors lived anywhere in this
country during slavery and/or Jim Crow, they most likely were
racists, and like the majority of whites, enjoyed benefits on the
backs of black people. Furthermore, as Edward Ball tells us in his
new book, it’s estimated that one half of all white Americans have
in their family tree a Klansman.
If you lived during slavery and/or Jim Crow, you probably would have
followed your family and friends footsteps. Humans are shaped by
social norms which inform their views about themselves in
relationship to others. History has shown us that our natural desire
is to be part of the human herd no matter how reprehensible the
herd’s behavior is. Humans are capable of committing, supporting or
turning a blind eye to injustices and heinous crimes, as long as
it’s acceptable by the majority of society, and benefits them. Those
dark days are not over. Just think about how you view and treat
sentient nonhuman animals.
Even though I thought about and contemplated social justice issues
for years, I did not connect all the dots. I didn’t fully consider
the nonhuman animals. Indeed, I stopped consuming chickens and meat
at a relatively young age because I thought I loved animals and how
can you eat the flesh of creatures you love? But, I didn’t think
about the big picture of animal status in our society.
For example, I conveniently didn’t consider the extreme cruelty of
the dairy industry. I‘m ashamed to say that as a women and scientist
I didn’t bother to learn that procuring milk requires that female
cows be forcibly impregnated (raped) and their babies taken away
from them shortly after birth, year after year. The calves are
butchered for veal and the cows for ground beef at the young age of
4 or 5 years, when they can no longer give milk, nor stand. I was
not alone in my ignorance.
Conveniently thinking that other species are lesser beings and
therefore can be exploited and killed for selfish reasons such as
taste and entertainment, is embedded in our way of life. Such
prejudice, arrogant and self-serving notions are ingrained in us.
Ironically, even those who claim they’re against injustice,
violence, and oppression, who preach to others about racism and
social justice, don’t extend their awareness and empathy towards
their own victims, the nonhuman animals.
What should break our hearts is that animals are exactly like us in
all the ways that really matter. They think, feel pain, joy, love,
fear and any other emotions we have. They love their babies and form
friendships that can last a lifetime. If you have a dog or ever met
one, you already know all that. Cows, pigs and chickens are no
different.
Most people overlook all that and exploit the illusion of their
supremacy, and the extreme violence ensues. There is insufficient
space in this post to describe the many ways in which this is
manifested, but here’s one mind blowing number to illustrate it:
each year we kill 74 billion land animals and an estimated 90
billion marine animals worldwide! Only one species’ consumption of
animals’ flesh, dairy and eggs, contributes to this mass carnage.
I’m amazed that as a society we don’t condemn the brutality against
our fellow beings, and worse, we treat it as business as usual. Most
folks believe it’s their right to support the oppression,
imprisonment and ending the life of innocent creatures, so they can
use them for anything they desire. Consuming their flesh, milk and
eggs, and wearing their skin, wool, and feathers, demand that young
living beings be tortured and killed[1],[2]. Their heartbreaking
plight goes unnoticed. The human capacity for self-serving denial is
endless.
If indeed we are “good” and “compassionate”, why can’t we extend our
empathy towards other sentient beings? If we’re capable of self
reflection, why can’t we internalize the simple fact that our fellow
earthlings’ lives are equally important and deserve our respect? How
come we consider ourselves the most intelligent species, and yet
it’s so difficult for us to understand that no animal wants to die
to be our bacon, nuggets or omelet, our leather shoes, or a research
subject in a laboratory?
If we’re free thinking people we should be able to break the mold
when our behavior is unethical, destructive and harmful to others.
The fact that your mom fed you meat many years ago (my mom did)
doesn’t mean you have to continue unnecessarily feeding your
children and yourself with animal flesh–knowing the extreme cruelty
involved in raising, transporting, and brutally killing young
animals against their will.
I urge you to view a video taken in a slaughterhouse or read the LA
Times article about folks who bear witness to animal transports. If
I had to guess, none of my readers would click on the links above.
If you eat meat and “think” that it’s ethical and normal, please ask
yourself, why wouldn’t you want to read and watch how your meat is
procured?
And for those of you who can’t bring themselves to feel any empathy
towards their victims (or, as I’ve heard it “I care more about
humans”), please consider the simple fact that animal agriculture is
killing all of us. Science informs us that the industry is
(including “small”, “local” and “free range” farms) destructive to
the environment, it’s the root cause for pandemics, not to mention
harmful to our personal health.
Martin Luther King, Jr. said that “The arc of the moral universe is
long, but it bends toward justice.”
There is no doubt in my mind
that the atrocities we commit against our fellow earthlings will be
viewed by future generations through the same lens we view slavery.
Please be on the right side of history and follow the footsteps of
the minority who challenged slavery, back when it was the law of the
land. Break the shackles of your upbringing and traditions and view
your victims for who they are, sentient, beautiful beings who want
to live on this earth as much as you do.
As I’m writing this, fires are ravaging vast parts of the U.S., a
direct result of global warming, to which animal agriculture is the
lead contributor. I beg you, overcome your cognitive dissonance and
face the dire reality and destructive consequences of your habits.
Join the millions of people who’re thriving on plant-based
nutrition. There are plentiful options and great plant-based
substitutes for meat, dairy and eggs, and please, contact me if you
need more suggestions. It’s easy, very tasty and the right thing to
do, go vegan!
“What do they know—all these scholars, all these philosophers, all
the leaders of the world—about such as you? They have convinced
themselves that man, the worst transgressor of all the species, is
the crown of creation. All other creatures were created merely to
provide him with food, pelts, to be tormented, exterminated. In
relation to them, all people are Nazis; for the animals it is an
eternal Treblinka.”
~ Nobel Laureate, Isaac Bashevis Singer
“Because I’m a civil rights activist, I am also an animal rights
activist. Animals and humans suffer and die alike. Violence causes
the same pain, the same spilling of blood, the same stench of death,
the same arrogant, cruel and vicious taking of life. We shouldn’t be
a part of it.”
~ Dick Gregory, civil rights activist.