The Animal Manifesto

What are our responsibilities? What value do we place on life? Who do we think animals are? Whose land is it? To what degree should we amend our lives, or change our habits, to make room for other species?

I say “choose” because we do indeed make choices about how we treat our fellow animals, and we are responsible for the decisions we make

In other words, it’s very easy for humans to love domestic animals, who have learned to live and play by human rules, but it’s much harder to coexist with the majority of animal species who don’t

If you loved someone, would you call them a thing?. . . A rug or something is a thing, but not an animal.” Another youngster once asked me, “How can we hug a dog and cook a cow or pig?” Good question. Our relationships with animals are indeed confused

Speciesism is lazy thinking. It’s what allows us to abuse and kill animals “in the name of science,” but what this really means is “in the name of humans.” Once we declare we are special and better and more valuable than our animal kin, we close the door on their lives

“Animals should not be called things because they are beings, not things

we see clearly that “we” are “them” and “they” are “us” in many ways

When describing a deplorable act, how often have you heard someone say that the person “acted like an animal”?

Tempest Williams, in Finding Beauty in a Broken World

Eventually, step by step, we can create a world where ethical choices are commonplace and compassion is the name of the game, rather than a world where we ignore the welfare of our fellow animals