Carolina QuotesFrom my reading of Gandhi I had learned how some people in India regard eating cow as unspeakably repulsive. I realized I felt the same way about cats and dogs: I could never eat them. Were cows so different from cats and dogs that there were two moral standards, one that applies to cows, another that applies to cats and dogs? Were pigs so different? Were any of the animals I ate so different?
Tom Regan Carolinian
Source
Ch. 2
- work
- Empty Cages (2004)
- year
- 2004
Cite this record
“From my reading of Gandhi I had learned how some people in I…” Tom Regan. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-53D33BAD61. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/53d33bad61
More from Tom Regan
Then there are those proverbial “bird brains” of the barnyard, chickens, surely the most maligned and abused animal on the face of the earth, and—just as surely—among the brightest, most social birds we'll find anywhere. … Chickens not only are capable of learning, they are also capable of teaching one another. It turns out that chickens are not as dumb as popular mythology makes them out to be.
People like me, people who believe in animal rights, feel the same way about eagles and elephants, pigs and porpoises, as most people feel about cats and dogs. Don't get me wrong. Animal Rights Advocates (ARAs) don't want pigs sleeping in our beds or elephants riding in our cars. We don't want to make “pets” of these animals. What we want is something simpler: we just want people to stop doing terrible things to them.
The task facing ARAs is daunting: we must empty the cages, not make them larger.