quotations about animals
Remember: Animals are not our selfie props. If there's any risk that your photo is going to hurt or stress an animal, it's not worth it.
ANGELA HENDERSON
"Dear Everyone, Animals Are Not Selfie Props", PeTA, February 22, 2016
It is a greater sin to be cruel to the dumb creation, almost, than it is to be unkind to human beings, as the latter can complain, and have laws to protect them, but the former often have no redress. Take the dog, for instance. A man may kick him, and ill-treat him ever so, and he still loves his master, and is ready to risk his life for him without a moment's hesitation. Then there is the horse, one of the grandest and noblest animals in creation; treat him kindly, and you can do anything with him, but use him badly, and he becomes a mule, and will kick you the first chance. One of the worst used and most abused of all animals is the donkey, and yet he, by his work, supports thousands and tens of thousands of human beings; treat him with kindness, and he will work like a little horse. The most inhuman little wretches in creation are British donkey-boys, but, more ignorant often than the donkeys they drive, the fault does not rest with them, but in their training. Another piece of great cruelty is to tie the legs of fowls, huddle them in a bag of small dimensions, or basket, in a hot day, without water, and send them long journeys. To conclude, the man or woman who is unkind to the lower animals, would act in the same manner towards their fellow creatures, if they had the chance, and thought they would escape punishment.
T. AUGUSTUS FORBES
"On Kindness to Dumb Animals"
Early in the 20th century zoos were having trouble keeping animals alive. We didn't understand how to look after them properly, we didn't know what they ate and we didn't know how to keep them. These days the animals are living so long that we are seeing problems with bones and joints, heart disease, kidney disease and cancer. The question now is how much veterinary intervention is appropriate in zoos?
MARK STIDWORTHY
"Zoos filling up with geriatric animals as medical advances extend life expectancy", The Independent, March 11, 2016
Everywhere animals are in chains, but we image them as free.
CAROL J. ADAMS
The Sexual Politics of Meat
I told the good Father that if he and I were going in the future to some wonderful Elysian Field and the animals were not going to go anywhere, that was all the more reason to give them a little better shake in the one life they did have.
CLEVELAND AMORY
obituary, The New York Times, Oct. 16, 1998
Animals are neither gods nor fiends, but men in their way without the lust and greed of man.
ROBERT E. HOWARD
Kull: Exile of Atlantis
If zoos are like arks, then rare animals are like passengers on a voyage of the damned, never to find a port that will let them dock or a land in which they can live in peace. The real solution, of course, is to preserve the wild nature that created these animals and has the power to sustain them. But if it is really true that we are inevitably moving towards a world in which mountain gorillas can survive only in zoos, then we must ask whether it is really better for them to live in artificial environments of our design than not to be born at all.
PETER SINGER
In Defense of Animals
It is also a very remarkable fact that although many animals show more skill than we do in some of their actions, yet the same animals show none at all in many others; so what they do better does not prove that they have any intelligence, for if it did then they would have more intelligence than any of us and would excel us in everything. It proves rather that they have no intelligence at all, and that it is nature which acts in them according to the disposition of their organs. In the same way a clock, consisting only of wheels and springs, can count the hours and measure time more accurately than we can with all our wisdom.
RENE DESCARTES
Discourse on Method
Animals are just pure, uncomplicated entities of creation from God. They live like the Maasai do in Kenya--for each day is forever to them and the "Now" is what they live in. You can get aggravated with your pets and yell at them, but in a matter of minutes they are licking your hand again in love.
SYLVIA BROWNE
All Pets Go to Heaven
For animals, the current outlook may appear bleak: animals undergo abhorrent levels of suffering, especially on the farm and in laboratories, and help has not come from our legal system. Laws that grant animals greater protections must overcome disinterested legislatures and the powerful and wealthy animal agriculture and pharmaceutical lobbies. As a result, animals are subject to almost no protections.
DANIEL SONDIKE
"In Winning Rights for Animals, Approaches Differ", The Harvard Law Record, March 9, 2016
Why are we so concerned about whether other animals are like human beings or not? Because we are worried about whether we should consider them kinfolk of ours, relatives. If they are relatives of ours, then we should treat them with more respect than if they are not.
SYDNEY M. LAMB
Selected Writings of Sydney Lamb
Animals, according to many traditions, were once protected from a global flood by entering the shelter of an ark. Today, many of those same animal species face a new catastrophic flood, but this time the deadly downpour is caused by humans. Animals around the world confront a rain of bullets, poisonings, traps, and snares. Some of the most emblematic animals on this planet -- tigers, elephants, rhinos -- are closer to extinction than salvation.
YURY FEDOTOV
"World wildlife day: Animals are being slaughtered one by one, not saved two by two", The Guardian, March 2, 2016
It is in hunting that the special relationship with animals is clearest. In Siberian belief, animals are thought to give themselves of their own free will to a hunter who respects them. Animals are equal in status to their hunters, and in myths often change into humans or marry them. The brown bear, considered to be Lord of the Forest, has a soul-force of immense power which can be dangerous, but can also be used for healing. Even today, injuries are healed by stroking the affected part with a bear's paw or rubbing it with bear's fat. A bear hunt is surrounded by taboos, and in many areas the soul of a killed bear must be appeased by an elaborate rite. For example, the eyes are sewn up to prevent the bear from pursuing the hunter.
ROY G. WILLIS
World Mythology
All animals are minor variations on a very particular theme.
RICHARD DAWKINS
The Ancestor's Tale
In the first stages of the industrial revolution, animals were used as machines. As also were children. Later, in the so-called post-industrial societies, they are treated as raw material. Animals required for food are processed like manufactured commodities.... This reduction of the animal ... is part of the same process as that by which men have been reduced to isolated productive and consuming units. Indeed, during this period an approach to animals often prefigured an approach to man. The mechanical view of the animal's work capacity was later applied to that of workers.
JOHN BERGER
About Looking
Animal smell is beyond philosophy.
KOBO ABE
The Woman in the Dunes
Animals in their generation are wiser than the sons of men; but their wisdom is confined to a few particulars, and lies in a very narrow compass.
JOSEPH ADDISON
The Spectator, Jul. 17, 1711
I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contained. I stand and look at them long and long.
WALT WHITMAN
Leaves of Grass
New sentient creatures filled the unseen depths,
Life's glory and swiftness ran in the beauty of beasts.
SRI AUROBINDO
Savitri
All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others.
GEORGE ORWELL
Animal Farm