Why Non-discrimination Begins with other Species

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” — Gandhi.

The progress of animal-welfare legislation around the world demonstrates humanity’s moral progress. “To seek to reduce the suffering of those who are completely under one’s domination, and unable to fight back, is truly a mark of a civilized society,” according to moral philosopher Peter Singer.

Moral progress and animal welfare are interconnected. Members of a society are more predisposed to have respect for other people if they are compassionate and respectful towards other species. The ability to have compassion towards all living beings is integral to a more compassionate world.

Animal compassion is essential to achieve human compassion

If we want to have a society without violence or discrimination, we should start disseminating compassion towards animals. Why?

Lack of compassion is the origin of discrimination (and violence). We learn to discriminate through observed behaviours from the moment we are born.

Compassion is an individual trait (that can be taught). It depends on the subject, not on characteristics of the discriminated. Thus, we should teach individuals to be compassionate to all living beings. No matter the species.

That’s the only way to be consistent in our compassion.

“The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that’s wrong with the world.” — Paul Farmer

The root of all forms of discrimination

Discrimination has a variety of forms; from racism to sexism to ableism and beyond. The one you might haven’t heard about is speciesism: discriminating animals based on species.

“Speciesism is the idea that being human is a good enough reason for human animals to have greater moral rights than non-human animals.” (BBC)

According to Amnesty International, “at the heart of all forms of discrimination is prejudice based on concepts of identity, and the need to identify with a certain group. This can lead to division, hatred and even the dehumanization of other people because they have a different identity.”

Animals have the most differences when we compare them to differences between humans (gender, age, ethnicity, etc). Thence, they suffer from the worst forms of violence.

Carnism: a belief system following speciesism

Most people look at veganism as a belief system. But eating meat is also a cultural belief system. It doesn’t make it less so just because it’s mainstream.

“We assume it’s unnecessary to assign a term to ourselves when we adhere to the mainstream way of thinking, as though its prevalence makes it an intrinsic part of life rather than a widely held opinion. Meat-eating, though culturally dominant, reflects a choice that is not espoused by everybody.” — Melanie Joy

In her book, “Why we love dogs, eat pigs and wear cows”, Melanie Joy shows how most people would be disgusted if, when eating meat, they discovered it was actually dog meat. Why is it that certain foods cause emotional reactions, especially when the ingredient is the same: meat?

The answer is perception. We react differently to different types of meat; not because there is a physical difference between them, but because our perception of them is different.

Carnism is the dominant, yet invisible paradigm in modern culture supporting the choice to consume meat. This is an invisible belief system not just because it’s the unquestioned norm, but also because the billions of animals that are slaughtered every day are not seen — they are kept in confined operations, invisible to the public.

The choice to eat meat is not natural, but influenced by social conditioning and culture. Cultural attributes of animals vary worldwide and reflect a set of cultural practices that influence how animals are viewed, used, and treated by humans.

And the most surprising thing is, most people care deeply about animals and do not want them to suffer. Further, humans value compassion, reciprocity, and justice.

So, why does human behaviour not match these values?

Because the system is kept invisible. We close our eyes and pretend it doesn’t happen. We turn away, distance ourselves from the problem and learn to desensitize from it. We engage in psychic numbing, which alters the perception of our behaviour towards animals and uses defense mechanisms to block empathy.

First, carnism denies there is a problem with eating animals; second, it justifies eating meat as normal, natural, and necessary; third, to prevent cognitive dissonance, carnism alters the perception of the animals as living individuals into food objects, abstractions, and categories.

Through this denial, justification, and perceptual distortion, carnism influences people to violate their core values, according to Joy.

We discriminate because we block our empathy

I believe we do the same for any kind of discrimination. When we distance ourselves from any kind of systemic discrimination, we continue to benefit from it. We don’t think about it. We convince ourselves that because we’re not the ones directly inflicting suffering, it shouldn’t be our responsibility to stop it. But it is.

So, let’s learn more about discrimination. Let’s understand who are the victims in this world. Let’s stop our suffering-causing behaviours. Let’s donate our time and money to make the world a better place. Let’s help the animals, the people and the planet.

For humanity’s sake, let’s be decent human beings.