Click image for details on Circles of Compassion
Kathleen Stachowski Other Nations
Supreme Court decisions and national anniversaries can put one in an expansive mood, though applying social justice issues to nonhuman animals is always the logical next step for some of us. After all, slavery, commodification, discrimination–the evils we’ve visited upon our own and have attempted to banish–are still just business as usual where our nonhuman animal sisters and brothers are concerned.
The recent Supreme Court ruling that for-profit employers with religious objections can opt out of providing contraception coverage under Obamacare is one such instance. By chance, I came across the image above the day after the ruling was announced and was reminded–again–that, while expressing anger and dismay over the intrusion of employers’ beliefs into women’s personal reproductive decisions, most women, in turn, give no thought to the suffering females whose reproductive eggs and lactation products they consume. These are females for whom bodily integrity and reproductive autonomy don’t exist and will never exist as long as the animal-industrial complex profits from their misery.
Why can’t those who rightfully demand reproductive freedom for themselves realize that our sentient, nonhuman animal sisters–dairy cows and laying hens among others–deserve justice and compassionate consideration, also? They are brought into this world solely as production units whose reproductive abilities are exploited for profit. When they’re prematurely exhausted, the slaughterhouse awaits. We owe our sister species more than this.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 turns 50
Today we observe a significant 50-year anniversary in our nation’s history (see 20 iconic photos here). When will we see speciesism legally addressed with a Species Rights Act? Will it first come as legal personhood granted to one with human-like intelligence? (That case is in court now–see video op-doc; legal scholars, click here.) Though the legal wall may need to be breached with a plaintiff whose intelligence resembles our own, most animal rights activists will tell you that sentience alone must be the criterion for fundamental rights under the law. How far off is that day? Dr. King, in his “I’ve been to the mountaintop” speech (delivered the day before his assassination), spoke of going “up to the mountain.” He continued: “And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!”
We who are working for social justice that includes other species know it will be a long haul; nonetheless, we envision a promised land that holds compassion and justice for ALL animals–human and nonhuman. Whether or not we get there together–and it’s likely we won’t–we would do well to heed these words from The Talmud: You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.
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Learn more:
- Sister Species: Women, Animals, and Social Justice book review is here
- 2013: The year of non-human rights–maybe for chimps, at Animal Blawg
- I’ve been to the mountaintop, last 2-1/2 minutes of speech (video), here
- Go vegan! here
Filed under: animal advocacy, animal law, animal rights, diet, factory farms | Tagged: dairy cows, laying hens |
Animal Blawg 
Reblogged this on Exposing the Big Game.
Reblogged this on Ann Novek–With the Sky as the Ceiling and the Heart Outdoors.
This is especially disturbing, because unimpeded access to contraceptives is uniquely important from an animal rights perspective. The last thing animals need is more humans.
What this piece doesn’t say is that the use of contraceptives is ethically obligatory. There’s no possible justification for the creation of human babies. This was always true, but it’s never been more obviously true than it is today, with teeming human populations desolating every part of the globe and causing animals to suffer as never before. The unquestioned pro-birth attitude of many animal rights advocates never ceases to amaze and depress me.