What about them? If we are simply acting as a voice for the voiceless, then why must we continually argue with each other?
Think about it. How can we have the audacity to compare human beings taking offense to words versus the constant suffering abuse, torture, pain, fear and terror that nonhuman beings must endure during their entire short lives until they experience their own violent deaths after witnessing the violent deaths of their loved ones?
This question begs two more questions.
First, what is the only species that kills for fun and sport?
“Of all the creatures, man is the most detestable. Of the entire brood, he’s the one that possesses malice. He is the only creature that inflicts pain for sport, knowing it to be pain. The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot.” Mark Twain, American writer, 1835-1910
Second, how should humans treat other species?
Most cultures agree with a common theme of Goodness which implies Compassion, Empathy, Gentleness, Kindness, Peace and the Golden Rule…which supports Veganism; not Violence, Torture and Slaughter.
For example, Christians refer to the Bible. In Genesis 1:26, the Bible states that God gave humans “dominion over creatures.” Many Hebrew scholars believe the word “dominion” is a very poor translation of the original Hebrew word “v’yirdu” which actually meant “to rule over” as a wise king rules over his subjects with CARE and RESPECT. It implies a sense of RESPONSIBILITY and ENLIGHTENED STEWARDSHIP.
“Unlike the animal, God has given man the faculty of reason. Ethically they had arrived at the conclusion that man’s supremacy over lower animals meant not that the former should prey upon the latter, but that the higher should protect the lower, and that there should be mutual aid between the two as between man and man. They had also brought out the truth that man eats not for enjoyment but to live.” Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948
“We are all God’s creatures—that we pray to God for mercy and justice, while we continue to eat the flesh of animals that are slaughtered on our account, is not consistent.” Isaac Bashevis Singer, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, 1902-1991
“Animals, too, are God’s creatures…Certainly, a sort of industrial use of creatures, so that geese are fed in such a way as to produce as large a liver as possible, or hens live so packed together that they become just caricatures of birds, this degrading of living creatures to a commodity seems to me in fact to contradict the relationship of mutuality that comes across in the Bible.” Pope Benedict XVI, 1927-2022
“In my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. The more helpless the creature, the more it is entitled to protection by man from the cruelty of man.” Gandhi
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” Gandhi
“When I see a cow, it is not an animal to eat, it is a poem of pity for me and I worship it and I shall defend its worship against the whole world.” Gandhi
“If God wants us to breed into existence billions of animals to enslave, torture and slaughter them (mostly as babies) for sensory pleasure, then what in the world could the Devil possibly want? Gary Yourofsky, American Activist