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indietro
"Non-violence
leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution.
Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still
savages."
Thomas
Edison
"The
cruel experimenter cannot be allowed to have it both ways. He
cannot, in the same breath, defend the scientific validity of
vivisection on the grounds of the physical similarities between
man and the other animals, and then defend the morality of
vivisection on the grounds that men and animals are physically
different. The only logical alternatives for him are to admit he
is either pre-Darwinian or immoral."
Richard
Ryder
"There
is no fundamental difference between man and the higher animals
in their mental faculties... The lower animals, like man,
manifestly feel pleasure and pain, happiness, and misery."
Charles
Darwin
"In
all the round world of utopia there is no meat. There used to be.
But now we cannot stand the thought of slaughterhouses. And in a
population that is all educated and at about the same level of
physical refinement, it is practically impossible to find anyone
who will hew a dead ox or pig. We never settled the hygienic
aspect of meat-eating at all. This other aspect decided us. I
can still remember as a boy the rejoicings over the closing of
the last slaughterhouse."
H.G.
Wells
"Suppose
that tomorrow a group of beings from another planet were to land
on earth, beings who considered themselves as superior to you as
you feel yourself to be to other animals. Would they have the
right to treat you as you treat the animals you breed, keep and
kill for food?"
John
Harris
"...there
is something so very dreadful, so satanic in tormenting those
who have never harmed us, and who cannot defend themselves, who
are utterly in our power, who have weapons neither of offence
nor defence, that none but very hardened persons can endure the
thought of it"
Cardinal
Newman
"Family
organisation is broken and young animals are increasingly being
denied a mother to turn to for comfort and for grooming. One of
the saddest and most pathetic of farm practices - inevitable at
the present time for the supply of dairy produce - is the
separation of the calf from the cow at birth or soon
after."
Ruth
Harrison
"There
will be no justice as long as man will stand with a knife or
with a gun and destroy those who are weaker than he is."
Isaac
Bashevis Singer
"Awareness
is bad for the meat business.
Conscience
is bad for the meat business.
Sensitivity
to life is bad for the meat business.
DENIAL,
however, the meat business finds indispensable."
John
Robbins,
Diet for a New America
"If
you could see or feel the suffering you wouldn't think twice.
Give back life. Don't eat meat."
Kim
Basinger
"If
an animal does something we call it instinct; if we do the same
thing for the same reason we call it intelligence"
Will
Cuppie
"I
am not basically a conservationist. When the last great whale is
slaughtered, as it surely will be, the whales' suffering will be
over. This is not the whales' loss, but man's. I am not
concerned about the wiping out of a species - this is man's
folly - I have only one concern, the suffering which we
deliberately inflict upon animals whilst they live."
Clive
Hollands
"Very
few people question that it is an act of kindness to put an
animal painlessly to death if it is injured beyond possibility
of a pain-free future; or that it is better to neuter pets than
to allow thousands of unwanted litters to be born. But mention
it might be better for a breeding sow in a farrowing crate if
she had never been born, and you will be met with chants of
"Any life is better than no life". Humans have an odd
way of finding pleasure in activities that bring them pleasure,
or profit, or both."
Bronwen
Humphries
"True
human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the
fore only when its recipient has no power. Mankind's true moral
test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view),
consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy:
animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a fundamental
debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it."
Milan
Kundera
"In
a lunch session at the slaughterhouse, a lamb jumped out of its
pen and came unnoticed up to some slaughtermen who were sitting
in a circle eating some sandwiches; the lamb approached and
nibbled a small piece of lettuce that a man was holding in his
hand. The men gave the lamb some more lettuce and when the lunch
period was over they were so affected by the action of the lamb
that not one of them was prepared to kill this creature, and it
had to be sent away elsewhere - showing that within each human
soul there is an element of pity, compassion and love in varying
degrees. It is our duty to encourage the higher qualities to
bloom and blossom wherever possible in each individual.
Gordon
Latto
"Ask
the experimenters why they experiment on animals, and the answer
is: 'Because the animals are like us.' Ask the experimenters why
it is morally OK to experiment on animals, and the answer is: 'Because
the animals are not like us.' Animal experimentation rests on a
logical contradiction."
Professor
Charles Magel
"Man
is not the pedestalled creature pictured by his imagination - a
being glittering with prerogatives, and towering apart from and
above all other beings. He is a pain-shunning, pleasure-seeking,
death-dreading organism, differing in particulars, but not in
kind, from the pain-shunning, pleasure-seeking, death-dreading
organisms below and around him."
Howard
Moore
Where
is the movement now?
"All
great movements, it is written, go through three stages:
ridicule, discussion, adoption. It is the realisation of this
third stage, adoption, that requires our passion and our
discipline, our hearts and our heads. The fate of animals is in
our hands."
Tom
Regan
"Hunting...the
least honorable form of war on the weak."
Paul
Richard
"Because
one species is more clever than another, does it give it the
right to imprison or torture the less clever species? Does one
exceptionally clever individual have a right to exploit the less
clever individuals of his own species? To say that he does is to
say with the Fascists that the strong have a right to abuse and
exploit the weak - might is right, and the strong and ruthless
shall inherit the earth."
Richard
Ryder
"Every
particle of factual evidence supports the factual contention
that the higher mammalian vertebrates experience pain sensations
at least as acute as our own. To say that they feel pain less
because they are lower animals is an absurdity; it can easily be
shown that many of their senses are far more acute than ours -
visual acuity in certain birds, hearing in most wild animals,
and touch in others; these animals depend more than we do today
on a the sharpest possible awareness of a hostile environment.
Apart from the complexity of the cerebral cortex (which does not
directly perceive pain) their nervous systems are almost
identical to ours and their reaction to pain remarkably similar,
though lacking (so far as we know) the philosophical and moral
overtones. The emotional element is all too evident, mainly in
the form of fear and anger."
Richard
Serjeant
"Animals
of the word exist for their own reasons. They were not made for
humans any more than blacks were made for whites or women for
men."
Alice
Walker
"There
will come a time...when civilised people will look back in
horror on our generation and the ones that preceded it: the idea
that we should eat other living things running around on four
legs, that we should raise them just for the purpose of killing
them! The people of the future will say "meat-eaters!"
in disgust and regard us in the same way we regard cannibals and
cannibalism"
Dennis
Weaver
"The
animals you eat are not those who devour others; you do not eat
the carnivorous beasts, you take them as your pattern. You only
hunger after sweet and gentle creatures who harm no one, which
follow you, serve you, and are devoured by you as the reward of
their service"
John
Jacques Rousseau
"Nothing
more strongly arouses our disgust than cannibalism; yet we make
the same impression on Buddhists and vegetarians, for we feed on
babies, though not our own."
Robert
Louis Stephenson
"We
recognise, I hope, our special responsibilities to the aged and
infirm, towards the sick, the mentally subnormal and the
physically handicapped. We say that such sentient creatures that
are less able to care for themselves deserve our special care
and support. The same argument applies to children - and we as
adults claim we recognise special duties towards them. If this
is so, then why do we not recognise our special duties towards
individuals from less clever species?"
Richard
Ryder
"It
is in the battery shed that we find the parallel with Auschwitz....To
shut your mind, heart and imagination from the sufferings of
others is to begin slowly, but inexorably, to die. Those
Christians who close their minds and hearts to the cause of
animal welfare, and the evils it seeks to combat, are ignoring
the Fundamental spiritual teachings of Christ himself"
John
Baker,
Bishop of Salisbury
"What
is it but deliberate massacre when tens of thousands of tame,
hand-reared creatures are every year literally driven into the
jaws of death and mown down in a peculiarly brutal manner? A
perfect roar of guns fills the air; louder tap and yell the
beaters, while above the din can be heard the heart-rending
cries of wounded hares and rabbits, some of which can be seen
dragging themselves away, with legs broken, or turning round and
round in their agony before they die! And the pheasants! They
are on every side, some rising, some dropping; some lying dead,
but the great majority fluttering on the ground wounded; some
with both wings broken and a leg; others merely winged, running
to hide; others mortally wounded, gasping out their last breath
amidst the hellish uproar which surrounds them. And this is
called 'sport!'"
Florence
Dixie
"Behind
every beautiful fur, there is a story. It is a bloody, barbaric
story."
Mary
Tyler Moore
"To
argue that we humans are capable of complex multifarious thought
and feeling, whereas the sheep's perception is probably limited
by lowly sheepish perceptions, is no more to the point than if I
were to slaughter and eat you on the grounds that I am a
sophisticated personality able to enjoy Mozart, formal logic and
cannibalism, whereas your imaginative world seems confined to
True Romances and tinned spaghetti."
Brigid
Brophy
"At
the moment our human world is based on the suffering and
destruction of millions of non-humans. To perceive this and to
do something to change it in personal and public ways is to
undergo a change of perception akin to a religious conversion.
Nothing can ever be seen in quite the same way again because
once you have admitted the terror and pain of other species you
will, unless you resist conversion, be always aware of the
endless permutations of suffering that support our
society."
Arthur
Conan Doyle
"The
awful wrongs and sufferings forced upon the innocent, faithful
animal race, form the blackest chapter in the whole world's
history."
Edward
Augustus Freeman
"I
have no doubt that it is part of the destiny of the human race
in its gradual development to leave off the eating of animals,
as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other
when they came into contact with the more civilized."
Henry
David Thoreau
"Of
all the creatures ever made, Man is the most detestable. He is
the only creature that inflicts pain for sport, knowing it to be
pain."
Mark
Twain
"There
will come a time when the world will look back to modern
vivisection in the name of Science, as they do now to burning at
the stake in the name of religion."
Henry
J. Bigelow
"If
we are trespassing, so were the American Soldiers who broke down
the gates of Hitler's death camps; If we are thieves, so were
the members of the Underground Railroad who freed the slaves of
the South; and if we are vandals, so were those who destroyed
forever the gas chambers of Buchenwald and Auschwitz."
Animal
Liberation Front, author unknown
"Why
is compassion not part of the established curriculum, an
inherent part of our education? Compassion, awe, wonder,
curiosity, humility - these are the foundation of any real
civilisation, no longer the prerogatives, the preserves of any
one church, but belonging to everyone, every child in every home
in every school."
Yehudi
Menhuin
"We
can not do great things-- only small things with great
love."
Mother
Theresa (author)
"If
all the beasts were gone, man would die from loneliness of
spirit, for whatever happens to the beast, happens to the man."
Chief
Seattle
"Until
he extends the circle of compassion to all livings things, Man
will not himself find peace."
Albert
Schweitzer
"He
who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with
men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."
Immanuel
Kant
"A
righteous man has regard for the life of his beast."
Proverbs
12:10
"By
ethical conduct toward all creatures, we enter into a spiritual
relationship with the universe."
A.
Schweitzer
"...We
know from the truths of evolution and ecology that we are all
related and interdependent. Anthropomorphism (crediting animals
with human emotions and traits) is, however, outdated. Rather we
know that we are like animals."
Michael
W. Fox
"I
want to realize brotherhood or identity not merely with the
beings called human, but I want to realize identity with all
life, even with such things as crawl upon earth."
Mohandas
Gandhi
"I
care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the
better for it."
Abraham
Lincoln
"The
Anti-Vivisector does not deny that physiologists must make
experiments and even take chances with new methods. He says that
they must not seek knowledge by criminal methods, just as they
must not make money by criminal methods. He does not object to
Galileo dropping cannon balls from the top of the leaning tower
of Pisa; but he would object to shoving off two dogs or American
tourists."
George
Bernard Shaw
"The
question is not, can they reason? Nor, can they talk? But can
they suffer?"
Jeremy
Bentham
"...we
sacrifice other species to our own not because our own has any
objective metaphysical privilege over others, but simply because
it is ours. It may be very natural to have this loyalty to our
own species, but let us hear no more from the naturalists about
the "sentimentality" of anti-vivisectionists. If
loyalty to our own species--preference for man simply because we
are men--is not sentiment, then what is?"
C.S.
Lewis
"The
greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by
the way its animals are treated."
Gandhi
"I
am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is
the way of a whole human being."
Abraham
Lincoln
"I
believe I am not interested to know whether vivisection produces
results that are profitable to the human race or doesn't. To
know that the results are profitable to the race would not
remove my hostility to it. THE PAIN WHICH IT INFLICTS UPON
NON-CONSENTING ANIMALS is the basis of my enmity toward it, and
it is to me sufficient justification of the enmity without
looking further."
Mark
Twain
"For
fidelity, devotion, love, many a two-legged animal (man) is
below the dog and the horse. Happy would it be for thousands of
people if they could stand at last before the Judgment Seat and
say "I have loved as truly and I have lived as decently as
my dog." And yet we call them "only animals"!"
Henry
Ward Beecher (abolitionist)
"I
despise and abhor the pleas on behalf of that infamous practice,
vivisection... I would rather submit to the worst of deaths, so
far as pain goes, than have a single dog or cat tortured to
death on the pretense of sparing me a twinge or two."
Robert
Browning (poet)
"Imagine
that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object
of making men happy in the end, giving them peace and rest at
last, but that it was essential and inevitable to torture to
death only one tiny creature, and to found that edifice on its
unavenged tears. Would you consent to be the architect on those
conditions? Tell me, and tell the truth."
Fyodor
Dostoyevsky (novelist)
"Love
animals: God has given them the rudiments of thought and joy
untroubled. Do not trouble their joy, don't harass them, don't
deprive them of their happiness, don't work against God's intent.
Man, do not pride yourself on superiority to animals; they are
without sin, and you, with your greatness, defile the earth by
your appearance on it, and leave the traces of your foulness
after you--alas, it is true of almost every one of us!"
Fyodor
Dostoyevsky (novelist)
"Non-violence
leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution.
Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still
savages."
Thomas
Edison (inventor)
"Every
year tens of thousands of animals suffer and die in laboratory
tests of cosmetics and household products...despite the fact
that the test results do not help prevent or treat accidental or
purposeful misuse of the products. Please join me in using your
voice for those whose cries are forever sealed behind the
laboratory doors."
Woody
Harrelson (actor)
"Even
one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other;
yea, they have all one breath, so that a man hath no preeminence
above a beast: for all is Vanity."
Ecclesiastes
3:19
"Our
task must be to free ourselves...by widening our circle of
compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of
nature and its beauty."
Albert
Einstein (physicist, Nobel 1921)
"Not
to hurt our humble brethren (the animals) is our first duty to
them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher
mission--to be of service to them whenever they require it... If
you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the
shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal
likewise with their fellow men."
Saint
Francis of Assisi (mystic and preacher)
"There
is not an animal on the earth, nor a flying creature on two
wings, but they are people like unto you."
The
Koran (sacred scripture of Islam)
"I
abhor vivisection with my whole soul. All the scientific
discoveries stained with innocent blood I count as of no
consequence."
Mahatma
Gandhi (statesman and philosopher)
"To
my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a
human being. I should be unwilling to take the life of a lamb
for the sake of the human body."
Mahatma
Gandhi
"If
we cut up beasts simply because they cannot prevent us and
because we are backing our own side in the struggle for
existence, it is only logical to cut up imbeciles, criminals,
enemies, or capitalist for the same reasons."
C.
S. Lewis (novelist and essayist)
"All
cruelty springs from weakness."
Seneca
(4 BC - AD 65)
"We
have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated
our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond
doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would
depict the Devil in human form."
William
Ralph Inge (1860-1954)
continua...
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