4 comments

• Comment Link Saturday, 19 June 2010 11:23 posted by Manuj Chandra

  "We" claim that we have the right to use animals because they are different than us, just as white men used skin color as a justification for slavery. However, from a genetic perspective the gaps in genes between us and our closest animal relative is arbitrary. We just happen to be the lucky survivors in the evolutionary race. As a thought experiment, it's perfectly acceptable to imagine a world where all the genetic "gap species" were still alive. Thus, between us and the bonobo there would be a continuum of living beings, all almost identical to their genetic neighbor. In such a world, it would be impossible to draw a line between us and the bonobo where we could say "From hereon oppression begins", and justify it with any kind of argument. The primates on either side of the oppression line would be identical except for one gene. The differences in appearance, intelligence and senses (if such a word exists) would be so small that no test except a careful DNA test could tell them apart, and I'm not sure even DNA tests are accurate enough. Thus, they would be identical to each other, yet one of them would be doomed to be oppressed while the other would benefit from our protection. Since this would be a totally unacceptable and morally indefensible stance, we'd have no choice but to grant the bonobos the same rights as humans, to not be used as property. Of course, the though experiment is easily expanded to include ALL living beings since we share a common ancestor. - Richard Dawkins

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• Comment Link Saturday, 19 June 2010 11:22 posted by Manuj Chandra

  The feeling that members of one's own species deserve special moral consideration as compared with members of other species is old and deep. Killing people outside war is the most seriously-regarded crime ordinarily committed. The only thing more strongly forbidden by our culture is eating people (even if they are already dead). We enjoy eating members of other species, however. Many of us shrink from judicial execution of even the most horrible human criminals, while we cheerfully countenance the shooting without trial of fairly mild animal pests. Indeed we kill members of other harmless species as a means of recreation and amusement. A human foetus, with no more human feeling than an amoeba, enjoys a reverence and legal protection far in excess of those granted to an adult chimpanzee. Yet the chimp feels and thinks and, according to recent experimental evidence, may even be capable of learning a form of human language. The foetus belongs to our own species, and is instantly accorded special privileges and rights because of it. Whether the ethic of 'speciesism', can be put on a logical footing any more sound than that of 'racism', I do not know. What I do know is that it has no proper basis in evolutionary biology. - Dr. Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene

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• Comment Link Friday, 18 June 2010 12:46 posted by Manuj Chandra

  According to Darwinian Evolution, all traits evolved slowly and successively over thousands of generations. In the words of Dr. Richard Dawkins, the "mount improbable" was not climbed in a single leap, but a gradual slope. For example, there are many different kinds of eyes that evolved independently from one another using different evolutionary pathways...And an underdeveloped eye is still better than no eye. This is then only logical to conclude that the ability to feel physical and/or emotional pain also evolved in gradual steps over millions of generations and species rather than in one giant and abrupt leap for mankind alone. This shows that other animals, who are our cousins and share the same one common ancestor with us have also evolved the capacity to feel emotional and/or physical pain either using similar or independent evolutionary mechanisms that served as building blocks of human suffering. The ability to experience uncomfortable sensations can lead to the difference between survival or extinction since only by avoiding acute uncomfortable sensations can an animal succeed in her ability to transfer her DNA and become an ancestor herself. If humans can have their own version of rights, it's only logical and scientific to conclude that the ability to feel pain and suffering is not an exclusive domain of humans alone and that non-human animals have rights too. - Manuj Chandra, co-founder, Kranti

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• Comment Link Friday, 18 June 2010 11:16 posted by Manuj Chandra

  Douglas Adams, Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy
  
  A large dairy animal approached Zaphod Beeblebrox’s table, a large fat meaty quadruped of the bovine type with large watery eyes, small horns and what might almost have been an ingratiating smile on its lips.
  
  ‘Good evening’, it lowed and sat back heavily on its haunches, ‘I am the main Dish of the Day. May I interest you in the parts of my body?’
  
  It harrumphed and gurgled a bit, wriggled its hind quarters in to a more comfortable position and gazed peacefully at them.
  
  Its gaze was met by looks of startled bewilderment from Arthur and Trillian, a resigned shrug from Ford Prefect and naked hunger from Zaphod Beeblebrox.
  
  ‘Something off the shoulder perhaps?’ suggested the animal, ‘Braised in a white wine sauce?’
  
  ‘Er, your shoulder?’ said Arthur in a horrified whisper.
  
  ‘But naturally my shoulder, sir,’ mooed the animal contentedly, ‘nobody else’s is mine to offer.’
  
  Zaphod leapt to his feet and started prodding and feeling the animal’s shoulder appreciatively.
  
  ‘Or the rump is very good,’ murmured the animal. ‘I’ve been exercising it and eating plenty of grain, so there’s a lot of good meat there.’
  
  It gave a mellow grunt, gurgled again and started to chew the cud. It swallowed the cud again.
  
  ‘Or a casselore of me perhaps?’ it added.
  
  ‘You mean this animal actually wants us to eat it?’ whispered Trillian to Ford.
  
  ‘Me?’ said Ford, with a glazed look in his eyes, ‘I don’t mean anything.’
  
  ‘That’s absolutely horrible,’ exclaimed Arthur, ‘the most revolting thing I’ve ever heard.’
  
  ‘What’s the problem Earthman?’ said Zaphod, now transfering his attention to the animal’s enormous rump.
  
  ‘I just don’t want to eat an animal that’s standing there inviting me to,’ said Arthur, ‘It’s heartless.’
  
  ‘Better than eating an animal that doesn’t want to be eaten,’ said Zaphod.
  
  ‘That’s not the point,’ Arthur protested. Then he thought about it for a moment. ‘Alright,’ he said, ‘maybe it is the point. I don’t care, I’m not going to think about it now. I’ll just...er...I think I’ll just have a green salad,’ he muttered.
  
  ‘May I urge you to consider my liver?’ asked the animal, ‘it must be very rich and tender by now, I’ve been force-feeding myself for months.’
  
  ‘A green salad,’ said Arthur emphatically.
  
  ‘A green salad?’ said the animal, rolling his eyes disapprovingly at Arthur.
  
  ‘Are you going to tell me,’ said Arthur, ‘that I shouldn’t have green salad?’
  
  ‘Well,’ said the animal, ‘I know many vegetables that are very clear on that point. Which is why it was eventually decided to cut through the whole tangled problem and breed an animal that actually wanted to be eaten and was capable of saying so clearly and distinctly. And here I am.’
  
  It managed a very slight bow.
  
  ‘Glass of water please,’ said Arthur.
  
  ‘Look,’ said Zaphod, ‘we want to eat, we don’t want to make a meal of the issues. Four rare stakes please, and hurry. We haven’t eaten in five hundred and sevebty-six thousand million years.’
  
  The animal staggered to its feet. It gave a mellow gurgle. ‘A very wise choice, sir, if I may say so. Very good,’ it said, ‘I’ll just nip off and shoot myself.’
  
  He turned and gave a friendly wink to Arthur.
  
  ‘Don’t worry, sir,’ he said, ‘I’ll be very humane.’

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