I think how we treat our
animals reflects how we treat each other.
- Barack Obama
In fact,
how we treat our animals affects how we treat each other.
At the turn of the 20th
century, Upton Sinclair exposed the devastating work conditions and living
environments of those who toiled in Chicago’s stockyard slaughterhouses. In The Jungle he made a connection between the numerous
after-work fights instigated by slaughterhouse workers and the killing and
dismembering of animals all day at work.
This is from the introduction to Slaughterhouses
and Increased Crime Rates – An Empirical Analysis of the Spillover From “The
Jungle” Into the Surrounding Community by Amy J. Fitzgerald from the University
of Windsor and Linda Kalof and Thomas Dietz from Michigan State University (Organization & Environment, 2009 v.
20).
Their
study concludes,
The findings indicate that slaughterhouse employment
increases total arrest rates, arrests for violent crimes, arrests for rape, and
arrests for other sex offenses in comparison with other industries. This
suggests the existence of a Sinclair effect unique to the violent workplace of
the slaughterhouse, a factor that has not previously been examined in the
sociology of violence.
Albert
Einstein had a suggestion:
A human being is a part of
the whole, called by us 'Universe,' a part limited in time and space. He
experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the
rest. A kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind
of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a
few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison
by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the
whole of nature in its beauty.
and
If a man aspires towards a
righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals.
Others
have written in a similar vein.
We can judge the heart of a
man by his treatment of animals.
- Immanuel Kant
The greatness of a nation
and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.
- Gandhi
Until he extends the circle
of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace.
- Albert Schweitzer
As long as people will shed
the blood of innocent creatures there can be no peace, no liberty, no harmony
between people. Slaughter and justice cannot dwell together.
- Isaac Bashevis Singer
But
slaughter and beauty do dwell together, among us.
I expect
to pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do, or any
kindness or abilities that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now.
Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
- William
Penn
