Weekly Newsletter from Christian Vegetarian Association CVA - November 12, 2024
From Christian Vegetarian Association (CVA)

  1. Democracy and Animal Welfare
  2. Christian Vegetarian Association Marketplace
  3. All-Creatures.Org Ministry

1. Democracy and Animal Welfare

I’ve been thinking about scapegoating and its relationship with democratic institutions. How do democratic institutions impact animal issues?

Animal protectionists threaten powerful animal-abusing industries, and those who profit from animal exploitation and abuse have strong incentives to silence their critics. Consequently, fundamental liberal democratic rights, such as freedom of speech and freedom of association, are crucial to animal advocacy. These rights themselves depend on an independent judiciary, which itself is grounded on free and fair democratic elections.

Those seeking authoritarian rule pose a threat to animal protectionists. To what degree do they pose a threat to nonhumans? On the one hand, silencing animal advocates means silencing those who give voice to the voiceless. However, authoritarians paradoxically can sometimes benefit from nonhumans. For example, authoritarians can encourage animal welfare to give an appearance of beneficence. Of course, the window dressing can easily be removed, and one would expect its removal when the propaganda value of animal welfare was less than the value to authoritarians and their henchmen to harmfully exploit nonhumans.

Also, authoritarian rule tends to be much less economically efficient and there tends to be much greater disparities in wealth compared to free, open market capitalism. Much animal abuse is a consequence of a large fraction of the population having the resources to consume large quantities of meat, dairy, and eggs. North Korea reflects an extreme consequence of authoritarian rule: few people are vegan or vegetarian, but there is little consumption of animal products because few people can afford them on more than rare occasions.

The flip side of the coin, as Educated Choices Program President Lorena Mucke points out, is that economic prosperity generates opportunities to invest in plant-based innovation and public awareness that might benefit nonhumans in the long run.

An important question, it seems to me, is whether people in general will adopt or largely adopt a plant-based diet and also whether they will demand high standards of animal welfare for those animals used for human consumption. If not, then nonhumans are likely to experience less pain and misery in oppressive authoritarian regimes than in free and democratic ones, simply because far few animals will be subjected to abuse. The degree of abuse experienced by a given animal would be about the same, but the number of victims would be less in the authoritarian regime.

As always, comments are welcomed.

Stephen R. Kaufman, M.D.

2. Christian Vegetarian Association Marketplace

Visit www.christianveg.org to buy T-shirts, books, bumper stickers, and more.

3. Sister Ministry - All-Creatures.Org

Visit All-Creatures.org for a wide range of news items, commentaries, recipes, and much more!
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All-Creatures.org Newsletter, November 6, 2024

Aquaculture is more damaging to Fishes than we thought — wild animals and alcohol? — one Seaquest venue’s exposed cruelties results in its closure — vegan 1984 vs. vegan 2024 — another zoo Elephant gets sanctuary — vegan surcharge dropped by Starbucks — Paul Watson still jailed — rising bird flu reports — Marineland kills three more animals — animal shelter woes — and more…

Do you have things that you would like to see included in future newsletters? Then send it to us at veda@all-creatures.org. 

In the Love of the Lord,
Frank L Hoffman
All-Creatures.org

and

Kindness,
Tams Nicholson
Executive Directress
All-Creatures.org 

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