Animals, Nonviolence, and the International Day of Peace

by Stephanie Ernst · 2009-09-21 14:40:00 UTC
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Today is the International Day of Peace, calling for nonviolence and ceasefire, as I learned last night from Kelly of easyVegan.info. And although my plans to post on a related topic this afternoon have been derailed along with the rest of my day, I'm lucky that Kelly (also a periodic contributor to this blog) wrote her thoughtful post on the topic last night, including this:

The day’s “ceasefire” most certainly does not include the millions of cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, horses, dogs, rats, seals, foxes and other domestic and wild-living nonhuman animals who will be slaughtered for food, clothing, vivisection, entertainment and the like. Quite the contrary: humans’ exploitation of nonhumans will continue, unabated, throughout the day and across the globe.

Even so, that shouldn’t discourage animal advocates from observing the day with an emphasis on our nonhuman brothers and sisters. Indeed, it’s all the more reason to stress a truly inclusive and nonviolent day of peace. If not us, who?

When I think of “peace,” the first thought to come to mind is the above quote from Franz Kafka, a Jewish writer and vegetarian whose three younger sisters (and only surviving siblings) all perished in the Holocaust. Now I can look at you in peace. I don’t eat you any more. So simple, so beautiful, so true.

Peace in actions brings peace of mind. And what more fundamental actions do humans engage in than eating, feasting, consuming? Peace begins (but does not end!) on your plate.

Please read the rest of Kelly's post here.

When I published the post "Animal Rights Is a Mainstream Movement" a few months ago (if you follow that link, beware the long comment thread; you may want to use a browser other than IE), a few arguments or lines of thought in particular seemed to resonate with people. One extract that folks have written to me about and that I've seen pop up on Facebook in a few places is the following; it seems appropriate to reiterate in this context:

Animal rights, at its heart, is the most unextreme philosophy I can imagine. It is about nonviolence. It is about compassion. It is about not harming and not causing suffering and not killing when we don't have to. That's it. It is really, truly that simple.

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Photo of rescued "free-range" hen courtesy of Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary

Stephanie Ernst wrote the original Animal Rights blog at Change.org until December 2009. She can now be found at Animal Rights & AntiOppression.
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