By Austin Webb
As long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seeds of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.
- Pythagoras
Source: freefromharm.org
Over the last several hundred years since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, humanity has made technological and scientific advancements that would have been regarded as nothing short of magic to our ancestors: we can see and communicate with each other over thousands of kilometers using our smartphones, have cures to deadly illnesses that have plagued our species and can travel over the seas in hours via jets rather than risking death on an ocean voyage by wooden sailing ship, yet despite humanity's progress our species is as malevolent, violent and predatory as it has always been.
As the great philosopher and polymath Pythagoras has said, as long as our species kills animals, we will kill each other. These are words that humans prove continually through the actions of serial killers, terrorists, and the acts of violence that we’re continually exposed to when we watch the news or open social media in many cases. When people actively harm animals, slitting their throats or otherwise supporting their killing, could we dare expect civility and kindness from them?
Source: animalsaustralia.org
A link between childhood animal abuse and violence later in life is well established; for example, a 2018 study titled Animal Cruelty, Pet Abuse & Violence: the Missed Dangerous Connection found that 45% of school shooters have abused animals as children. 1) Other studies have found that child animal abuse has a predictive relationship with assault, rape, murder, arson, domestic violence, and child sexual assault. 2) The relationship between animal abuse and violence inflicted upon humans doesn’t stop with children; numerous studies corroborate this finding, including a 2021 systematic review found that even after controlling for socioeconomic variables, slaughterhouse employment increases individuals’ probability of being convicted of rape by 166% and domestic violence by 90%, where slaughterhouses are constructed crime rates rise. 3)
Proponents of animal exploitation may argue for animal consumption on a biological or nutritional basis; however, survival isn’t contingent on animal consumption or usage; we now understand via information presented in systemic reviews, such as the official position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, that we can be healthy without ingesting animals, and be less likely to suffer from heart disease, diabetes and cancer (the greatest killers of humans). 4)
Hence, slaughtering animals as food is as egregious an offense as abusing them for fun. The taste, texture, or olfactory pleasure from violating animals doesn’t justify the violence and certainly not from the victim's perspective. The bloody, gruesome reality of slaughterhouses is now everpresent; people can no longer use ignorance as an excuse as the majority of those with an internet connection have at some point come across the work of animal rights activists, including footage exposing what goes on behind slaughterhouse walls. When people sit down to eat the legs, organs, skin, and flesh of once-living beings, they become conditioned to violence; the slabs of bloody muscle tissue in the morgue-esque butcher shop or grocery store are viewed with a veil of ignorance as to the reality of the victims' agonizing end. The result of this injustice being both unnecessary and the perpetrators being conscious of the violation is that there is no tangible difference between those who torment animals for sadistic pleasure and those who consume them.
We cannot expect world peace while each human actively supports a perpetual genocide of animals, indulging in participating in an atrocity multiple times per day. By exercising our empathy, we can envision ourselves in the positions of the animals and understand the blatant hypocrisy of those who demand to be treated justly while their victims slosh around in their guts and, in a literal sense, fuel their cognitive functions, including their self-pity. For our species to both entirely reject injustice while being deserving of being treated justly, we must, at a bare minimum, refuse to force agony upon animals. By living vegan, we can declare that we do no such wrong that would make us deserving of hypothetical violent karmic retribution, regardless of the sadism embraced by the worst of humans.
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1) Johnson SA. "Animal Cruelty, Pet Abuse & Violence: The Missed Dangerous Connection." Forensic Res Criminol Int J. 2018;6(6):403-415.
2) Hovel; and Amber R. Macias-Mayo. "The Link Between Animal Abuse and Child Abuse." American Journal of Family Law. 32, no. 3 (Fall 2018): 130-136.
3) Arluke A, Levin J, Luke C, & Ascione F. "The Relationship of Animal Abuse to Violence and Other Forms of Antisocial Behavior." Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 1999;14(9):963-975.
4) Melina V, Craig W, Levin S. "Position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics: Vegetarian Diets." J Acad Nutr Diet. 2016 Dec;116(12):1970-1980. doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2016.09.025. PMID: 27886704.
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