Humans and other species share some desires:
-Food
-Water
-Shelter
-Companionship
-Freedom of movement
-Avoidance of Pain
EARTHLINGS
earth'ling: n. One who inhabits of the earth.
Since we all inhabit the earth, all of us are considered earthlings. There is no sexism, no racism or speciesism in the term earthling. It encompasses each and every one of us: warm or cold blooded, mammal, vertebrate or invertebrate, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish, and human alike. Humans, therefore, being not the only species on the planet, share this world with millions of other living creatures, as we all evolve here together. However, it is the human earthling who tends to dominate the earth, often times treating other fellow earthlings and living beings as mere objects. This is what is meant by speciesism.
By analogy with racism and sexism, the term "speciesism" is a prejudice or attitude of bias in favor of the interests of members of one's own species and against those of members of other species. If a being suffers there can be no moral justification for refusing to take that suffering into consideration. No matter what the nature of the being, the principle of equality requires that one's suffering can be counted equally with the like suffering of any other being. Racists violate the principle of equality by giving greater weight to the interests of members of their own race when their is a clash between their interests and the interests of those of another race. Sexists violate the principle of equality by favoring the interests of their own sex. Similarly, speciesists allow the interests of their own species to override the greater interests of members of other species. In each case, the pattern is identical.
Though among the members of the human family we recognize the moral imperative of respect (every human is a somebody, not a something), morally disrespectful treatment occurs when those who stand at the power end of a power relationship treat the less powerful as if they were mere objects. The rapist does this to the victim of rape. The child molester to the child molested. The master to the slave. In each and all such cases, humans who have power exploit those who lack it. Might the same be true of how humans treat other animals, or other earthlings? Undoubtedly there are differences, since humans and animals are not the same in all respects. But the question of sameness wears another face. Granted, these animals do not have all the desires we humans have; granted, they do not comprehend everything we humans comprehend; nevertheless, we and they do have some of the same desires and do comprehend some of the same things. The desires for food and water, shelter and companionship, freedom of movement and avoidance of pain? these desires are shared by nonhuman animals and human beings. As for comprehension: like humans, many nonhuman animals understand the world in which they live and move. Otherwise, they could not survive.
So beneath the many differences, there is sameness. Like us, these animals embody the mystery and wonder of consciousness. Like us, they are not only in the world, they are aware of it. Like us they are the psychological centers of a life that is uniquely their own. In these fundamental respects humans stand "on all fours", so to speak, with hogs and cows, chickens and turkeys. What these animals are due from us, how we morally ought to treat them, are questions whose answer begins with the recognition of our psychological kinship with them. So the following film demonstrates in five ways just how animals have come to serve mankind...lest we forget.
Nobel Prize winner Isaac Bashevis Singer wrote in his bestselling novel 'Enemies, A Love Story' the following: "As often has Herman had witnessed the slaughter of animals and fish, he always had the same thought: in their behavior toward creatures, all men were Nazis. The smugness with which man could do with other species as he pleased exemplified the most extreme racist theories, the principle that might is right". The comparison here to the holocaust is both intentional and obvious: one group of living beings anguishes beneath the hands of another. Though some will argue the suffering of animals cannot possibly compare with that of former Jews or slaves, there is, in fact, a parallel. And for the prisoners and victims of this mass murder, their holocaust is far from over. In his book 'The Outermost House' author Henry Beston wrote "We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature, and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creatures through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren; they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth".
Even people who are aware that the traditional family farm has been taken over by big business interests...that their clothes come from slaughtered cows, that their entertainment means the suffering and death of millions of animals... and that some questionable experiments go on in laboratories, still cling to a vague belief that conditions cannot be too bad, or else the government or the animal welfare societies would have done something about it. But it is not the inability to find out what is going on as much as a desire not to know about facts that may lie heavy on one's conscience that is responsible for this lack of awareness -- after all, the victims of whatever it is that goes on in all these awful places are not members of one's own group. It all comes down to pain and suffering. Not intelligence, not strength, not social class or civil right. Pain and suffering are in themselves bad and should be prevented or minimized, irrespective of the race, sex, or species of the being that suffers. We are all creatures. And non-human animals experience sensations just like we do. They too are strong, intelligent, industrious, mobile, and evolutional. They too are capable of growth and adaptation. Like us, first and foremost, they are earthlings. And like us, they are surviving. Like us, they also seek their own comfort rather than discomfort. And like us, they express degrees of emotion. In short, like us, they are alive; most of them being, in fact, vertebrae, just like us.
As we look back on how essential animals are to human survival; our absolute dependence on them (for companionship ... food ... clothing ... sport and entertainment ...as well as medical and scientific research), ironically ... we only see mankind's complete disrespect for these non-human providers. Without a doubt, this must be what it is... to "bite the hand that feeds us". In fact, we have actually stomped and spit on it. Now we are faced with the inevitable aftermath. This is evident in health reports due to our over-excessive consumption of animals. Cancer, heart disease, Osteoporosis, strokes, kidney stones, Anemia, diabetes, and more. Even our food has now been effected ... and at its very source. With antibiotics used to promote weight gain in animals (who can't gain weight under the stressful, overcrowded living conditions in factory farms); with the over-use of pesticides and insecticides; or artificial hormones (designed to increase milk production, litter size and frequency); with artificial colors, herbicides, larvicides, synthetic fertilizers, tranquilizers, growth and appetite stimulants ... it's no wonder that Mad Cow Disease ... Foot and Mouth Disease ... Pfiesteria ... and a host of other animal related abnormalities have been unleashed on the human public. Nature is not responsible for these actions. We are.
So a change is inevitable. Either we make it ourselves, or we will be forced to make it by Nature Itself. The time has come for each of us to reconsider our eating habits, our traditions, our lifestyles and fashions, and above all, our way of thinking. So, if there is any truth to the age-old saying, "What goes around, comes around", then what do they get for their pain? Do we even give it a second thought? If what goes around comes around, what do they get for their pain? They are earthlings. They have the right to be here just as much as humans do. Perhaps the answer is found in another age-old saying ... and one equally true: We reap just what we sow. So of course, animals feel, and of course they experience pain. After all, has nature endowed these wonderful animals with well-springs of sentiment so that they should not feel... or do animals have nerves in order to be insensitive? Reason demands a better answer. But one thing is absolutely certain: animals used for food, used for clothing, used for entertainment, and in scientific experiments and all the oppression that is done to them under the sun they all die from pain. Each and every one. Isn't it enough that animals the world over live in permanent retreat from human progress and expansion? And for many species ... there is simply nowhere else to go. It seems the fate of many animals is either to be unwanted by man... or wanted too much.
We enter as lords of the earth bearing strange powers of terror and mercy alike ... But Human beings should love animals as the knowing love the innocent, and the strong love the vulnerable. When we wince at the suffering of animals, that feeling speaks well of us even when we ignore it, and those who dismiss love for our fellow creatures as mere sentimentality overlook a good and important part of our humanity. But it takes nothing away from a human to be kind to an animal. And it is actually within us to grant them a happy life ... and a long one. On the heath, King Lear asked Gloucester: "How do you see the world?" And Gloucester, who is blind, answered: "I see it feelingly". I see it feelingly. Three primary life forces exist on this planet: Nature, Animals and Humankind. We are the Earthlings. Make the connection.
