Rabbit Advocacy Animal Matters

The Tiger Eating Her Cubs and Bad Animal Behavior

May 7, 2013 Free From Harm

Professor Tibor Machan, a leading opponent of animal rights, cites the example of a mother tiger eating her cubs as evidence of the absence of morality in animals (1). And he claims that rights don’t exist for animals because of their lack of morality. He could have just as easily cited a number of other examples where animals show a high level of empathy toward one another, like a mother cow licking her calf.

And how about humans? While we might possess a high level of moral reasoning, cannibalism is also part of our unfortunate legacy as is every imaginable atrocity toward our own kind. We’ve developed weapons of mass destruction with the intent of destroying large populations and ecosystems. Our modern societies produce a growing number of psychopaths and sociopaths who are incapable of moral reasoning.

So, why exclude non human animals from the protection of rights based on the bad behavior of some of them when that same bad behavior exists in our own species? Why is moral behavior even a prerequisite for a negative right not to be someone else’s property?

And even if all animals exhibited bad behavior (which they do not), why does the absence of morality translate into an affirmative human right to exploit animals in any way we choose — another position Machan defends? Considering that 99% of our animal use is attributed to animals raised for food who are denied all of their most basic interests and live in unnatural confinement, what kind of behavior would we come to expect from these animals? And how would humans behave if subjected to such conditions of slavery, adversity and suffering?

Clearly Machan does not apply the same scrutiny to human behavior as he does to non human animals. Yet ironically, he has no problem arguing that the worst case scenario for animal behavior is the primary reason to deny them even the most basic right not to be used as our resource.

From the debate between Professor Tibor Machan and Professor Gary Francione, January 2012 at http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/video/#.UYqR7hprbPx   

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Chinese Book of Rewards and Punishments

Five paragraphs from the explanations of the commandments:

(1) Do not let your children make toys out of flies/butterflies or birds. Such behavior results in injury to living creatures, but also it arouses in young hearts an impulse to cruelty and murder. Stories illustrative of the commandments: (2) The wife of a soldier named Fan was tuberculous and close to death. She was ordered to eat the brains of 100 sparrows as a remedy. When she saw the birds in the cage, she sighed and said: 'Must it be that 100 living creatures are to be killed that I may be healed? I would rather die than permit them to suffer.' She opened the cage and allowed them to fly away. Afterwards she recovered from her illness. (3) Tsao-Pin lived in a ruined house. His children begged him to have it repaired. He answered: 'In the cold winter the cracks in the walls and the space between the tiles and between the stones provide a shelter and a refuge to all kinds of living creatures. We should not endanger their lives.' (4) Wu-Tang used to take his son hunting with him. One day they came upon a stag that was playing with its young one. Tang took an arrow and killed the young one. The frightened stag ran off with a cry of anguish. When Tang concealed himself the stag returned and licked the wounds of its fawn. Tang again drew his bow and killed it. He then saw another stag and sent an arrow towards it, but the arrow was deflected and pierced his son. Tang threw his bow away and tearfully embraced his dead son, when he heard a voice from the air: 'Tang, the stag loved its fawn as much as you loved your son.' (5) Meng-tse praises King Suan of Tsi because of his compassion in freeing an ox that was to be sacrificed at the dedication of some bells. Such a sentiment, he says, should suffice to make one king of the world. Monastic Taoism & Kan-Ying-P'ien. From the commandments for monks: (1st): Thou shalt kill no living thing nor do injury to its life.

(2nd): Thou shalt not consume as food the flesh and blood of any living creature. (34th): Thou shall not strike or whip domestic animals. (35th): Thou shall not intentionally crush insects and ants with thy foot. (36th): Thou shalt not play with hooks and arrows for thine own amusement. (37th): Thou shalt not climb into trees to remove nests and to destroy the eggs. (63rd): Thou shalt not catch birds and quadrupeds with snares and nets. (64th): Thou shalt not frighten and scare away birds that are brooding on their nests. (68th): Thou shalt not dig up during the winter months animals hibernating in the earth. (112th): Thou shalt not pour hot water on the ground in order to exterminate insects and ants.

'Animals live by ethics! Albert Schweitzer on "Altruism"

(1) A flock of wild geese had settled to rest on a pond. One of the flock is captured by a gardener who had clipped its wings. When the geese started to resume their flight, this one tried frantically, but vainly, to lift itself into the air. The others, observing its struggles, flew about in obvious efforts to encourage it, but no use. The entire flock then settled back on the pond and waited, even though the urge to go on was strong, for several days, until the damaged feathers grew sufficiently to permit the goose to fly.

(2) A friend who owned a small cafe and used to throw crumbs for the sparrows, noticed that one was injured and had difficulty getting about. But he was interested to discover that the other sparrows would leave the crumbs which lay nearest their crippled comrade so that he could get his share, undisturbed.'

'When so much mistreatment of animals continues, when the cries of thirsty beasts from our railway cars die out unheard, when so much brutality prevails in our slaughterhouses, when animals meet a painful death in our kitchens, when animals suffer incredibly from merciless men and are turned over to the cruel play of children, WE ALL BEAR THE GUILT FOR IT. We are afraid of shocking people if we let it be noticed how much we are moved by the suffering man brings to animals. We think that others may have become more 'rational' than we, and may accept as customary and as a matter of course the things we have gotten excited about. Once in a while, however, a word suddenly slips out which shows that even they have not yet become reconciled to this suffering. Now they come very close to us though they were formerly strangers. The masks with which we were deceiving each other fall off. Now we learn from each other that no one is able to escape the grip of the cruelty that flourishes ceaselessly around us.'

Justice for animals is the social movement of our times and we must all participate to make it a reality. It’s long overdue. Carmina Gooch

'This is a revolution, damn it! We're going to have to offend somebody!' John Adams

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