Animal consciousness

I'm copying and pasting some fascinating quotes here from UPC founder, Karen Davis' review of "Experiencing Animal Minds: An Anthology of Human-Animal Encounters." Edited by Julie Smith and Robert Mitchel (2012).

"Privileging human verbal language as the signifier for the “superior” human brain over Voice, kinesthetic empathy, and countless other forms of expression has more to do with prejudice than with an open-minded interest in the world’s teeming varieties of life."

"Biological situation of brains within and as constituents of bodies which are themselves environmentally situated and interactive with their surroundings integrates with all of the evidence we have of evolutionary continuity among animal species and a reasoned belief that other animals’ minds are not mere precursors of human ways of knowing but parallel ways of being mentally active and alive in the world."

"A problematic fact is that we can never fully apprehend another’s experience, whether that other is human or nonhuman, with or without verbal language. As much as we may be able to suffer and rejoice vicariously with others, we cannot know for sure whether our sense of their inner experience reproduces their experience."

"A sorrowful echo of the mournful cries of the nearly extinct whooping cranes, evoked by Dillard-Wright in his essay, drifts through Experiencing Animal Minds – the animals’ captivity, our bigotry, their imminent extinction, our indifference, the fact that we require animals to prove their worthiness to be cherished and respected instead of being tortured, degraded, ridiculed, incarcerated, punished and extinguished because they are not us, and because we can get away with it."

"'Their mysterious otherness has not saved them, nor have their beautiful songs and coats and skins and shells, nor have their strengths, their skills, their swiftness, the beauty of their flights. We discover the remarkable intelligence of the whale, the wolf, the elephant – it does not save them, nor does our awareness of the complexity of their lives. It matters not, it seems, whether they nurse their young or brood patiently on eggs. If they eat meat, we decry their viciousness; if they eat grasses and seeds, we dismiss them as weak. We know that they care for their young and teach them, that they play and grieve, that they have memories and a sense of the future for which they sometimes plan. We know about their habits, their migrations, that they have a sense of home, of finding, seeking, returning to home. We know that when they face death, they fear it. We know all these things and it has not saved them from us.'"
Joy Williams wrote poignantly in “The Inhumanity of the Animal People,” in Harper’s Magazine, August 1997

Gary Steiner: “stop trying to recreate animals in our own image and begin to let animal beings be the beings they truly are.” 

"Jessica Ullrich argues in “Minding the Animal in Contemporary Art” that we need to recognize 'that animal experiences are not just pale imitations of our own.'"

"David Dillard-Wright implores us to see that “what counts about the crane is its unique mindedness – not the crane’s ability to measure up to an invented and artificial anthropocentric yardstick of intelligence.” A broader theory of mind, he says, 'will value the crane’s intelligence per se and not only by comparison to human capabilities.'"

Toronto Pig Save bears witness at - 20 C

Whistle blowing

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-friedrich/whistleblower-suppression_b_2559769.html

Just some thoughts

It seems that there is some contradictory evidence out there on what is the best diet and whether a plant-based diet is the panacea it claims to be.  To me it seems that there is sufficient evidence to suggest that vegan diets can be very healthy and lead to a long life and healthy weight. Look at the 7th Day Adventists, for example, who live much longer than other Californians.  I'm not that convinced that it should be super-low fat though, as nuts and avocados seem to provide many benefits.

In the end I'm not that worried about it though. If I can live a relatively healthy life without killing and maiming animals I'm all for it.  I do believe the environmental arguments against raising animals are strong too.  Of course growing crops can be and is mostly very harmful to the environment, but meeting high demands of meat consumption requires the redirection of human food to animals. It requires that "unproductive" lands be given up to pastures that could be used for conservation.  It uses more fossil fuels, water, etc.  I think that plant-based agriculture must be improved so that we don't use so many toxins and perhaps we can reduce monocultures, but animal agriculture only makes the problem worse and increases inefficiencies.  I'm also a big fan of using human manure as fertilizer.

Ultimately though, it comes down to the animals. Even if it were even healthier to eat animals than not too, and even if it were possible to have sustainable animal agriculture, which I doubt, it would still be wrong to confine, mutilate, separate families and kill sentient beings who suffer, and who can also enjoy life and long to live.  This is by far our strongest argument as vegans. We must never lose sight of the animals themselves, as the other arguments are subject to much debate and perhaps there is still too much conflicting evidence, making it easy for people to be swung either way.

The animals though! They want to live just like us! They fight death and pain just like us! They have only one life and then it's over, just like this. We cannot take their lives and sufferings with so little regard anymore. It is tragic and completely unjust.  As I write this I think of our little family dog, Grubby, who had to be put to sleep yesterday due to very poor health. How heartbroken we are. We valued him and his life, as he did too. It's hard to imagine life without him. And to think of all the billions of land animals, and even more sea creatures that killed each year in horrible ways. It makes me want to weep!

The Onion does it again

Humanely raised beef!