Peter Singer
(1946 - present)
Australian philosopher, Professor at Princeton University, USA.
He was formerly Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Centre for
Human Bioethics at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.
He is the author of the book Animal Liberation.
"Those who, by their purchases, require animals to be killed have no
right to be shielded from the slaughterhouse or any other aspect of the
production of the meat they buy. If it is distasteful for humans to
think about, what can it be like for the animals to experience it?"
“In an earlier stage of our development most human
groups held to a tribal ethic. Members of the tribe were protected, but
people of other tribes could be robbed or killed as one pleased.
Gradually the circle of protection expanded, but as recently as 150
years ago we did not include blacks. So African human beings could be
captured, shipped to America and sold. In Australia white settlers
regarded Aborigines as a pest and hunted them down, much as kangaroos
are hunted down today. Just as we have progressed beyond the blatantly
racist ethic of the era of slavery and colonialism, so we must now
progress beyond the species-ist ethic of the era of factory farming, of
the use of animals as mere research tools, of whaling, seal hunting,
kangaroo slaughter and the destruction of wilderness. We must take the
final step in expanding the circle of ethics.”
"All the arguments to prove man's superiority can not
shatter this hard fact: In suffering, the animals are our equals."
“Animal factories are one more sign of the extent to which our
technological capacities have advanced faster than our ethics.”
“For most humans, especially for those in modern urban and suburban
communities, the most direct form of contact with nonhuman animals is at
meal time: we eat them.... The use and abuse of animals raised for food
far exceeds, in sheer numbers of animals affected, any other kind of
mistreatment."
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