late night ramble

Its 11:45 on Friday night, so I think we can excuse a little unfocused blogging. Anyway, I have to get up early tomorrow (7:30!) to volunteer at the SPCA for the first time. I’m a little anxious, partly because I am concerned that it will be unpleasant work, and partly because I hope I will be a good student. I really want to help the animals, many of whom have been so badly treated by us. In the back of our minds, we all know that there is a lot of suffering out there, and we need to tune most of out just to get on with our daily lives, I am concerned that I’ll be put off volunteering by getting to close to evidence of human nastiness. I am also optimistic though, I think that one can get used to many things, and I really do believe in the cause, so we’ll see…

When Tracy, Jenny and I went to the info session two weeks ago I wasn’t surprised to see them use a cute puppy to inspire us to help. It is very effective, and I think it is important for two reasons, firstly it illustrates the importance of empathy in our moral lives (it causes us to do crazy things like volunteer), secondly, it shows how naturally empathy comes to us with animals. In the past two years I have started reading a little philosophy (hence my radical views on animal rights!) and I was struck by the general consensus that it is not possible to ground ethics purely in reason. One can rationally opt out of the ethical game, just so long as you don’t demand ethical treatment from others. Morality comes from empathy, we simply are not indifferent to the fate of others. Animal lovers, and people who are vegetarian because they empathise with animals are not short of concern for animals, and I think that’s fantastic and should be encouraged, but it also highlights what I see as a problem with any movement for animal rights. Ethical treatment of animals shouldn’t be seen as do gooding by a few kind souls but the lack of doing bad by the many. We don’t think of people who are not racist as altruists! Empathy is important but it is just the beginning. Humans are shockingly prone to forgetting about the concerns of others. In genocide, people of an arbitrary ethnic group are killed just because they are part of that group, it usually takes some convincing before people will act in this way, but it happens tragically often. The majority of us forget animals. Most people will be shocked if they see a pet being abused but don’t flinch at eating an animal that they know must have been horrifically abused. If its wrong to beat your dog then it is wrong to break a pigs ribs in transit. People feel sorry for animals, but they don’t recognise the implications of that.

In my writing, I aim to provide an unsentimental case for animal rights, I believe that any thinking person must know that much of our treatment of animals is indefensible. We don’t rely on empathy and goodwill to prevent human rights abuses, we shouldn’t need it to protect animals.