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| NEW INTERNATIONALIST 215 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| THIS MONTH'S THEME | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Targets
of tyranny Culture
of cruelty On
the meat-hook Prime
Cut Terrorists
or altruists? Hell
on Earth HUMANS
AND OTHER ANIMALS Sex, beauty
and beasts
Simply
Monsters
of the brave new world Zooooooh! |
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ANIMAL RIGHTS |
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| FROM THIS MONTH'S EDITOR | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Well, he was appointed - in spite of the shoes. And soon went on to discover that not only were others wearing leather shoes - he was also, at that time, the only vegetarian. The numbers have grown since then, reflecting a concern that is evident in most of our readers' countries. In fact, it has been decided that the next New Internationalist Food Book would be an exclusively - instead of partly - vegetarian one. The contents of an issue on Animal Rights did however give rise to some doubts in the group. 'Is it going to say we should all be vegetarians?' asked one colleague cautiously. Another was concerned about whether she was going to be 'made to feel guilty' about keeping a pet rabbit. Alas, the rights and wrongs of pet-keeping fade into relative insignificance the further one delves into exactly what kind of relationship we humans have with the rest of the animal world. On the face of it the average modern city-dweller does not seem to have much of a relationship with animals at all. If she does, it is probably with a domesticated cat or dog or fish. But if you start looking at the products she buys, what they are made of and how they are made, you may find that she is much more connected with the animal world than her ancestor ever was. It's a very different connection though - it is distant, alienating and, above all, a dead connection. Bringing vitality and meaning back into this deadly, distorted relationship may seem like a hopeless project. But it isn't. This is one issue that everybody can do something about - if only by changing a few personal habits. Of course Animal Rights consciousness is nothing new. Most of the world's major religions - Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, for example - preach compassion for fellow animals and tell us that their lives are precious and should be respected. Compassion is quite a bit thinner on the ground in the Western tradition and those individuals who put it into practice - like St Francis of Assisi or Leonardo da Vinci - were considered eccentric. But with the moves to abolish the human slave trade people began to think about another form of slavery - that of animals. Abraham Lincoln, for example, pronounced that it was only a matter of time before animals had legal rights. And the Enlightenment humanitarian Jeremy Bentham suggested: 'The question is not, can they reason? Nor, can they talk? But can they suffer? Why should the law refuse its protection to any sensitive being? The time will come when humanity will extend its mantle over everything which breathes...' Well, humanity certainly did not extend its mantle during the two centuries that followed. Rather, the industrial and modem age extended a massive network of suffering. But today a combination of rage and revulsion are serving to turn what were eccentric views into a mass movement. Could we be witnessing humanity's most radical revolution yet? |
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Letters
FRONT COVER ILLUSTRATION: Telegraph Colour Library |
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Vanessa Baird
for the New Internationalist Co-operative |
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One
of the current editors came to his interview at NI praying that no-one
would look at his feet. Or more specifically his shoes. They were his only
ones - well his only half-way decent ones. And they were made of leather.
What would those people at NI think if they saw that he was an exploiter
of animals? 
