The Cycle of Violence

In the comment thread to Saturday's post about the mass killing of starlings in New Jersey, Change.org member Sue shared a thoughtful, thought-provoking quotation about the cycle of violence that humans perpetuate against other animals and fellow humans as well--one form of violence forms the basis for another form, and so on and so on, and if we could stop one kind, we could make real progress toward stopping so many others. I now share that quotation with the rest of you. It features a line of thought that I've considered before and read and heard elsewhere, but I'd not yet seen this quotation in its entirety. Much thanks to Sue for posting it:

Isn’t man an amazing animal? He kills wildlife - birds, kangaroos, deer, all kinds of cats, coyotes, beavers, groundhogs, mice, foxes, and dingoes - by the millions in order to protect his domestic animals and their feed. Then he kills domestic animals by the billions and eats them. This in turn kills man by the millions, because eating all those animals leads to degenerative - and fatal - health conditions like heart disease, kidney disease, and cancer. So then man tortures and kills millions more animals to look for cures for these diseases. Elsewhere, millions of other human beings are being killed by hunger and malnutrition because food they could eat is being used to fatten domestic animals. Meanwhile, some people are dying of sad laughter at the absurdity of man, who kills so easily and so violently, and once a year sends out a card praying for "Peace on Earth."

– from the preface to Old MacDonald's Factory Farm, by C. David Coats

Close-up of sheep: jpockele at Flickr