1. Web Site of the Week
2. Essay: The Abolitionist Approach, Part 3,
Public Policy
3. This Week’s Sermon from Rev. Frank and Mary
Hoffman
1. Web Site of the Week
Animal Acts of Kindness blog: http://animalactsofkindness.blogspot.com/
2. Essay: The Abolitionist Approach, Part 3,
Public Policy
When it comes to public policy, I think there is a place for welfare
reforms and compromise, for at least two reasons. First, for better or
worse, it is the nature of the legislative process to include
compromises. If animals are to have legal protection (or even legal
rights in the event that the property status of animals were abolished),
it will be necessary to employ the legislative process, which reflects
the range of views on animal issues in our society.
Second, the abolitionist approach, in isolation and without the
assistance of an animal welfare reform movement, seems futile to me.
Relying on only this approach presumes that it is reasonable to expect
abolition of harmful treatment of animals at some point in the
foreseeable future. My experience has been that, while most people care
somewhat about animals, most don’t care enough to be willing to make
significant personal sacrifices on animals’ behalf, and many don’t care
at all. Human selfishness and hard-heartedness seem to be huge barriers
to the widespread adoption of animal rights, because the vast majority
of the public wants to exploit animals for food, clothing,
entertainment, science, etc. How many of us have close family and
friends who have heard our arguments, witnessed our dedication, and
maybe even seen our videos, and yet their attitudes and behaviors remain
largely or entirely unchanged? Indeed, throughout history humanity has
generally treated other humans, as well as nearly all members of other
species, badly. I don’t think that humans, in general, are sufficiently
kind-hearted to relinquish the perceived benefits of animal abuse, now
or any time in the foreseeable future.
Many of those advocating the abolitionist approach predict that
animal rights will come about in a few generations. I find this
unsatisfactory, because the scale of animal abuse is so huge that
waiting generations for abolition would mean that trillions of land
animals would be subjected to extreme abuse without any chance for
relief. However, I don’t think that contemporary human civilization,
which includes massive institutions of animal exploitation, is
sustainable. We are depleting scarce land, water, and energy resources,
and we are changing the environment in ways that will undermine human
civilization. Further, it is likely that the massive use of antibiotics,
which is necessary to keep animals from dying in unhealthy environments,
will lead to bacterial resistance that will render the antibiotics
impotent. Once that happens, factory farming will cease, because animals
can only survive in factory farms if stress-induced diseases are
controlled by continuous use of antibiotics. I anticipate that animal
abuse will fall dramatically in the upcoming decades, but I doubt it
will be a consequence of the goodness of human hearts. It will result
from widespread collapse of human institutions due to human
short-sightedness and hard-heartedness – the same human attributes that
underlie factory farming. If my pessimistic outlook has merit, then it
makes sense to reduce animal suffering as much as possible now, since
animals will likely be largely free of the horrors of factory farms
within a few decades, regardless of whether human compassion grows over
time.
Even if somehow animal rights became the law of the land, there will
always be powerful forces trying to undermine animal rights. There will
always be some people who lack empathy and caring, and they will seek to
dominate and exploit. Animal rights will always be a struggle, and there
will always be people who are very tempted to harm vulnerable animals.
Human civilization has seen periods of relative peace and good-will, but
when times turn sour due to natural disasters, economic downturns, or
other crisis, fear-mongers find fertile soil for ideologies that call
for exploitation and abuse.
In summary, abolitionism points to an ethical ideal, and I think
those who articulate and advocate abolitionism can strengthen the animal
protection movement. I also think that welfare reforms play an important
part of the struggle to defend “the least of these.”
Stephen R. Kaufman, M.D.
3. This Week’s Sermon from Rev. Frank and Mary
Hoffman
Daniel, God’s Man in the Field (Part 1)
http://www.all-creatures.org/sermons97/s2jul89.html.