(also known as “But animals are stupid.”)

This particular argument, embarrassingly enough, was actually employed by myself for many years to justify my own meat-eating. And on its face, my reasoning (and the reasoning of all meat-eaters who still believe this myth) was sound enough. After all, animals are clearly “less intelligent” than humans, which led me to logically assume that animals weren’t as aware of their own existence, which then logically allowed me to assume that animals couldn’t experience as much distress when confined, couldn’t experience as much pain when “processed”, and couldn’t experience as much suffering when murdered as I would.

Well, my Friends, to put it mildly — this was nothing more than simple & flagrant ignorance on my part. Even though it has now been conclusively proven that cows & chickens are as intelligent as human toddlers, and even though science has now clearly shown that pigs are far more intelligent than our beloved dogs (and even smarter than many of our own beloved children), “intelligence” is not a good bellwether for justifying another being’s murder … Indeed, when it comes to excusing the mass killing of our animal cousins, their intelligence (or perceived lack thereof) should have nothing at all do with it. Otherwise it would be perfectly acceptable for us to imprison or execute all our fellow humans who we deemed (or who our friends, or our government, or our church deemed) to be too “dense”, too “ignorant” or even too “wrong” … And so I wonder: if it is acceptable to kill animals simply because they are “stupid”, is it also acceptable for us to euthanize the mentally ill — or the very old — or the intellectually incapacitated? And if it is OK for us to murder animals because they are culturally or mentally “less than” us, is it then also acceptable for us to abort human fetuses in the third trimester – lives clearly less mentally viable than any conscious animal’s? Should we really be allowed to kill off anyone or anything we deem to be “dumb enough”?

Of course not!

“Differences in cognitive abilities do not in any way justify using someone as a slave.”
~ Sally Thompson

In fact, using such an argument to justify any practice with cruel or barbaric consequences (like slaughter) does not prove a lack of intelligence in the animals being killed, but rather shows a shocking lack of intelligence (and an equally shocking lack of decency) in those proposing that killing.

“Our treatment of animals will someday be considered barbarous. There cannot exist a real and valid civilization until man realizes that the rights of every living creature are as sacred as his own.”
~ inspired by Dr. David Starr Jordan

No, my Friends – it is sentience, not intelligence or “culture” or “sophistication”, that is the reason why we are morally called (and in most cases legally required) to avoid killing our fellow humans – and yet it is this very same sentience that is equally shared by the farmed animals we brutally butcher by the billions every year … And rest assured that animals are indeed quite sentient. At its very least sentience is the conscious awareness of one’s own existence. This awareness is characterized by — among other things — a longing to live (& often an accompanying fear of death), a fear of or repulsion from pain, and the ability to suffer while pain is experienced &/or when death seems imminent. In addition to these basic traits, many sentient species also exhibit some form of noticeable ability to logically reason, the tendency to engage emotionally with members of their own &/or other species, and unique behavioral patterns that form what some like to call “individual personalities”.

And the poignant point here is this one: ALL of these traits of sentience are quite obviously present in ALL species of modern-day farmed animals … As such, it is a patent fact that animals are more than conscious enough to warrant the same moral consideration as us humans; a fact that was openly affirmed by The Cambridge Declaration of Consciousness in 2012 – a prominent gathering of cognitive neuroscientists, neuropharmacologists, neurophysiologists, neuroanatomists, and computational neuroscientists who all openly agreed that, “Convergent evidence shows that non-human animals have the neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and neurophysiological substrates of consciousness.”

Now to be fair, despite my many years of misunderstanding, I can’t really be too hard on my past self. After all, like the vast majority of my fellow humans, I had never spent any intimate time with animals (p.s. Visits to the local zoo do not count!) … I had never experienced firsthand how animals interact with one another. I had never experienced firsthand how they care tenderly for their young, or how they revel in their lives’ joyous moments (playing with each other, laying in the sun, eating a good meal) or how they mourn their tragedies (being cold & hungry, or losing a child or beloved companion) … And, of course, I had never personally visited a slaughterhouse – I had never witnessed firsthand how the animals suffer there; how they tremble and quake and scream and writhe and cry out and wail while meeting their most brutal end in those “gulags of despair” (Philip Wollen).

And so for awhile my ignorance became my “bliss” …

… and then it became my shame.

 

You see, my Friends, what the meat & dairy and egg industries don’t want me to know – what they have been actively hiding from all of us for decades – is that animals DO know that they are alive, that animals DO fear death & pain, and that animals DO suffer immensely when they are imprisoned, suffer immensely when they are abusively “processed”, and suffer immensely when they are killed.

“Humans who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other animals have had an understandable penchant for pretending animals do not feel pain. A sharp distinction between humans and ‘animals’ is essential if we are to bend them to our will, wear them, eat them without any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret. It is unseemly of us, who often behave so unfeelingly toward other animals, to contend that only human animals can suffer.” ~ Carl Sagan

In conclusion then, animals may not be as intelligent or as talented or as communicative as you or I, my Friends, and yet they most certainly are equally self-aware – equally aware of their own existence, equally afraid of their own death, equally capable of forming emotional bonds with their loved ones, and as such, equally capable of suffering from their imprisonment, their abuse & their death.

Indeed, just because we have been conditioned to see certain behaviors – like killing animals for food — as “normal”, does not make these choices correct or moral or harmless. And just because we have been conditioned to see animals as “less than” than us humans does not change the fact that they are equally conscious, experience pain similarly, love their children with equal passion, and fear death with similar terror.

Essentially, if animals are not mere things; if they have any moral value whatsoever (two Truths that every single child and almost every adult – certainly every adult pet owner — already understands), then we simply cannot justify enslaving them, abusing them, eating them, wearing them, or using them for mere personal pleasure.

Yes, it is common convention to see animals as “only animals”; yes, it is common practice to treat animals as mere things – mere commodities to be used however we wish; and yes, it is a common belief that animals do not suffer mightily as a result. AND YET these are all lies – lies with very uncommon consequences; lies that create a most uncommon suffering for millions upon millions of our sentient cousins.

And yet one look into the eyes of any animal is all it takes to wake up – one extended gaze is all it takes awaken your own Soul to the fact that animals posses a Soul as well – that they each possess a consciousness that is just as vivid – that they each feel a desire to live & love that is just as viable – that they each know an awareness of (and have an appreciation for) life that is just as strong.

So please, invest a few moments and take this look today …
… and then please act accordingly thereafter.

Thank you.

 

“In studying the traits and dispositions of the so-called lower animals, and contrasting them with mankind’s, I find the result humiliating to me. Man is the only animal that blushes … and the only animal that needs to.” ~ Mark Twain

“If people were superior to animals, they’d take better care of them.”
~ inspired by A. A. Milne

 

Current status of this Myth: Nixed
Justification it provides for eating animals: NONE

Filed under: Minimizing the Myths of Meat by Scaughdt