I have had catastrophic dreams where the death of an animal was my only way to live. In these dreams, I chose death. When I awoke, I felt such relief and peacefulness. Even in my subconscious, my belief that my life is no more valuable than any animal prevailed.

And now I find this quote:

My situation is a solemn one: life is offered to me on the condition of eating beefsteaks. But death is better than cannibalism. My will contains directions for my funeral, which will be followed, not by mourning coaches, but by oxen, sheep, flocks of poultry, and a small traveling aquarium of live fish, all wearing white scarves in honor of the man who perished rather than eat his fellow creatures. It will be, without the exception of Noah’s Ark, the most remarkable thing of its kind ever seen.

[George Bernard Shaw, Anglo-Irish author and playwright, 1925 Nobel Prize Recipient, (1856-1950)]

~~~~

More to consider ….

If man is not to stifle his human feelings, he must practice kindness towards animals, for 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]

Atrocities are not less atrocities when they occur in laboratories and are called medical research.

[George Bernard Shaw]

If we pursue our habit of eating animals, and if our neighbour follows a similar path, will we need to go to war against our neighbour to secure greater pasturage, because ours will not be enough to sustain us, and our neighbour will have a similar need to wage war on us for the same reason.

[Socrates 470-399 BC]

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 greatness of a nation and it’s moral progress, can be judged by the way it treats it’s animals.

[Ghandi]

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. I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man.

[Mahatma Gandhi. An Autobiography, the Story of My Experiments]

‘And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over the earth, and over everything that creepeth upon the earth’.

“Dominion is an interesting word, and when I delved into its origin I found it does not mean, as some people believe, ‘dominance over’, but something quite different and very beautiful. It comes from the Hebrew verb ‘yorade’ which means ‘to come down to: to have communion with and compassion for’ which is what we are instructed to do with all living things in that passage in Genesis”.

[Excerpt from Bob Kerridge Auckland SPCA Newsletter 15.12.09]

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 R.Magel]

A human being is a part of the whole that we call the universe, a part limited in time and space. And yet we experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest – a kind of optical illusion of our consciousness. This illusion is a prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for only the few people nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living beings and all of nature.

[Albert Einstein]

Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.

[Albert Einstein, physicist, 1921 Nobel Prize recipient]

It is my view that a vegetarian manner of living, by its purely physical effect on the human temperament, would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind.

[Albert Einstein, physicist, 1921 Nobel Prize recipient]

All beings tremble before violence. All fear death. All love life. See yourself in others. Then whom can you hurt? What harm can you do?

[The Buddha, Indian avatar, (circa 563-483 B.C.)]

There’s a schizoid quality to our relationship with animals, in which sentiment and brutality exist side by side. Half the dogs in America will receive Christmas presents this year, yet few of us pause to consider the miserable life of the pig—an animal easily as intelligent as a dog—that becomes the Christmas ham.

[The New York Times Magazine, “An Animal’s Place” by Michael Pollan]

I do not see any reason why animals should be slaughtered to serve as human diet when there are so many substitutes. After all, man can live without meat. It is only some carnivorous animals that have to subsist on flesh. Killing animals for sport, for pleasure, for adventures, and for hides and furs is a phenomenon which is at once disgusting and distressing. There is no justification in indulging in such acts of brutality.

[His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama of Tibet]

The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.

[Alice Walker – American Author “The Colour Purple”]

If a man earnestly seeks a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from animal food.

[Count Leo Tolstoy, Russian novelist & philosopher, (1829-1910)]

The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men.

[Leonardo Da Vinci, Italian sculptor, artist, inventor, (1425-1519)]

The obligations of law and equity reach only to mankind; but kindness and beneficence should be extended to the creatures of every species and these will flow from the breast of a true man, as streams that issue from the living fountain.

[Plutarch, Greek philosopher, (46-120 A.D.)]

We cannot have peace among men whose hearts delight in killing any living creature. By every act that glorifies or even tolerates such delight in killing, we set back the progress of humanity.

[Rachel Carson, American author, Silent Spring (1907-1964)]

The Christian argument for vegetarianism is simple: since animals belong to God, have value to God and live for God, then their needless destruction is sinful.

[Reverend Dr. Andrew Linzey, Anglican priest, professor and author, Oxford University Chaplain]

In fact, if one person is unkind to an animal it is considered to be cruelty, but where a lot of people are unkind to animals, especially in the name of commerce, the cruelty is condoned and, once large sums of money are at stake, will be defended to the last by otherwise intelligent people.

[Ruth Harrison, Animal Machines]

When I was old enough to realize that all meat was killed, I saw it as an irrational power, to take a weaker thing and mutilate it. It was like bullies would take control of younger kids in the school yard.

[River Phoenix]

~~~

Be the Change.
Be Love <3