The Majority Of Humanity Has Turned A Blind Eye To The Suffering Of Animals

Monkey Sculls And Animal Parts Posted To U.S. Customers.
Customs officials at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France say they intercepted and seized 392 posted packages containing skulls from protected monkey species from May to December 2022.
They also seized hundreds more packages with skulls or bones from other species.
Some of the packages also contained whole animals or forearms with hands.
None of the items seized included any legal authorisations for the sale of protected species.
Most of the packages came from Cameroon and were destined for recipients in the United States.
( Aljazeera, 22.09.2023 )  ..  aljazeera.com

Cruelty to animals and cruelty to humans are two sides of the same page on which history is written in blood.
( Ulrich Erckenbrecht )

It has been written, ‘Thou shalt not kill’, but I say to you, if any hate and desire to slay, they have broken the Law.
If they cause hurt or torment to any creature, they are guilty.
But if they kill to put an end to suffering which cannot be healed, they are not guilty, if they do it quickly and with much mercy.
( Jesus, The Gospel of the Nazarenes 47:3 )

As long as people think that animals don’t feel, animals will have to feel that people don’t think.

The cruel experimenter cannot, in the same breath, defend the scientific validity of vivisection on the grounds of the physical similarities between man and the other animals, and then defend the morality of vivisection on the grounds that men and animals are physically different.
The only logical alternatives for him are to admit he is either pre-Darwinian or immoral.
( Richard Ryder )

All animals know it, except man, that the highest goal of life is joy.
( Samuel Butler )

Industrialised Animal Farming Now Dominates Western Food Systems.
Indigenous food systems are built on community knowledge.
As Cree journalist Xavier Kataquapit wrote for Nation News in 2019, the Elders taught him how to hunt and fish only for sustenance, taking “only what we need to feed our families.”
But the industrial meat production that dominates our global food system is the exact opposite.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Americans eat more meat than any other food category, and that number has been steadily ticking upwards.

The average American eats 54.6 pounds of chicken per year, for instance, and in 2020, the USDA estimated that over 165 million land animals were slaughtered here, and that doesn’t even count chickens, which were killed in the billions.
Globally, the number of animals slaughtered for food is estimated to be around 80 billion per year.

Industrialised animal farming now dominates Western food systems, bringing with it a lack of respect for animals and nature never before seen by the land’s original people.
It also brought with it a variety of negative impacts upon Indigenous communities that continue to ripple through today, including destruction of land and resources, and the subsequent displacement of our people.

As trees are burned and ripped from the earth to make room for more farms and slaughterhouses, more Indigenous people are ripped from their own land, leaving many with little to no resources, and for some a culture in crisis.
( Ashley Chisholm, 04.05.2023 ) ..  sentientmedia.org

Wrong remains wrong and injustice remains injustice even if the majority participate.

The Meat Industry Receives About 1,000 Times More Government Funding Than Alternative Plant-Based Products.
Everything that makes campaigning against fossil fuels difficult is ten times harder when it comes to opposing livestock farming.
You will be vilified daily as a “soyboy”, a “hater of farmers” and a dictator who would force everyone to eat insects.
You will be charged with undermining western civilisation, destroying its masculinity and threatening its health.
You will be denounced as an enemy of Indigenous people, though generally not by Indigenous people themselves, for many of whom livestock farming is and has long been by far the greatest cause of land-grabbing, displacement and the destruction of their homes.
Between 2015 and 2020, financial institutions invested $478billion (£380billion) in meat and dairy corporations.
But from 2010 to 2020, only $5.9billion was invested in plant-based and other alternatives.
Astonishingly, the livestock industry also receives, across the EU and US, about 1,000 times more government funding than alternative products.
This includes massively more money for research and innovation, even though meat and dairy are well-established industries, while the alternatives are at the beginning of their innovation phase.
( George Monbiot, 14.12.2023 )  ..  theguardian.com

Those who abuse or torture or deliberately kill animals have no soul and should never be trusted.
( Rose Winfold )

Keep yourselves from blood and things strangled and from dead bodies of birds and beasts, and from all deeds of cruelty, and from all that is gotten from wrong.
Do you think that the blood of beasts and birds will wash away sin?
I tell you, No!
Speak the truth, be just, and merciful to one another and to all creatures, and walk humbly with your Creator.
( Jesus, The Gospel of the Nazarenes 7:10 )

We want to live, just as much as all other animals want to live.

It is the anonymity of animal victims that makes us deaf to their cries.
( Luise Rinser )

The Majority Of Humanity Has Turned A Blind Eye To The Suffering Of Animals And The Destruction Of The Planet Caused By Industrialised Farming.
In the Amazon region of South America, several Indigenous tribes were forced from their land as cattle ranches expanded.
Today, cattle farming and beef production are big business in Brazil.
Between March 2019 and March 2021, meatpacking giant JBS destroyed over 100,000 hectares of forest for its livestock operations.
That’s over 185,000 football fields worth of tropical rainforest, all cleared to raise and feed animals for meat.

This deforestation drives climate emissions and biodiversity loss — and also displaces local peoples who know the land better than anyone.
The Amazon is home to many species, all necessary for ecological balance, including Giant otters, jaguars and poison dart frogs.
These animals are now endangered due to deforestation caused in great part by intensive animal farming.

In North America, many industrialised animal farming operations pollute Indigenous communities, as more livestock operations open in low-income communities populated heavily by Indigenous and BIPOC residents.
A 2020 analysis published by the Environmental Working Group documented every pig, chicken and turkey farm in North Carolina, noting that the state’s farmed animal population produced five million tons of waste each year.

The increase in livestock operations took place mostly in Duplin, Samson and Robeson counties, which are predominantly Black, Latinx and Indigenous communities.
These vulnerable populations make up 57% of the counties’ residents, with 28-29% of residents living in poverty.
The counties are also where 4.5 million pigs — more than half of the state’s pig population — are farmed.

The Natural Resources Defence Council explains that people living as well as working in close proximity to industrialised farming operations breathe in hundreds of gasses that form as manure decomposes.
One of these gasses —  hydrogen sulfide — is released by the lagoons where this manure is held and is dangerous to humans even at low levels.
Its effects — some of which are irreversible — range from sore throat to seizures, comas and even death.
Industrialised farms can have particularly detrimental effects on Indigenous resources, by polluting the air, water and land.
Pollution can poison fish and other animals, disrupting entire ecosystems.

The majority of humanity has turned a blind eye to the suffering of animals and the planet caused by industrialised farming, much as they have turned a blind eye to the suffering of Indigenous peoples.
It is time for the collective to open our eyes and witness the suffering of both.
( Ashley Chisholm, 04.05.2023 )  ..  sentientmedia.org

Animals flee from man because they can no longer recognise God’s image in them.
( Manfred Kyber )

Woe to humanity, should only a single animal have a seat in the Last Judgement.
( Christian Morgenstern )

Verily I say unto you, they who partake of benefits which are gotten by wronging one of God’s creatures, cannot be righteous.
Nor can they touch holy things, or teach the mysteries of the kingdom, whose hands are stained With blood, or whose mouths are defiled with flesh.
God giveth the grains and the fruits of the earth for food.
And for righteous man truly there is no other lawful sustenance for the body.
( Jesus, The Gospel of the Nazarenes 38:2-3 )

A loving, beating heart for animals also beats for humans, Nature and the Earth.

From animal murder to human murder is only one step, and so is from animal cruelty to human cruelty.
( Leo Tolstoy )

Over 82 Million Chickens Died Before Reaching Slaughter Weight In The UK In 2022.
The mortality rates for chickens is the highest for at least a decade.
Animal welfare organisations say the fast-growing chicken breeds that dominate production have higher mortality rates, lameness and muscle disease than slower-growing breeds.
They are calling on retailers to switch to slower-growing breeds and provide more space for the birds.
An analysis of official figures in a new report by the animal welfare campaign group Open Cages found 82.3 million chickens died before reaching kill weight last year, a mortality rate of nearly 7%.
It compares with 64 million chickens that died prematurely in 2021.
More than 1.1 billion chickens are slaughtered in the UK for meat each year.
( Jon Ungoed-Thomas, 11.11.2023 )  ..  theguardian.com

The rights and the protection of animals is of greater importance to me than the fear of being criticised by the uncaring.

Yea, I am in all creatures and all creatures are in me.
In all their joys I rejoice, in all their afflictions I am afflicted.
Wherefore I say unto you: Be ye kind one to another, and to all the creatures of God.
( Jesus, The Gospel of the Nazarenes 38:6 )

The animals are our brothers, big and small.
Only in this knowledge do we arrive at true humanity.
( Albert Schweitzer )

Hundreds Of Elephant Seals Found Dead In The Antarctic.
Bird flu is spreading in the Antarctic, with hundreds of elephant seals found dead, and fears it could bring “one of the largest ecological disasters of modern times” if the highly contagious virus reaches the remote penguin populations.
The virus was first reported among brown skua on Bird Island, off South Georgia.
Since then, researchers and observers have reported mass deaths of elephant seals, as well as increased deaths of fur seals, kelp gulls and brown skua at several other sites.
Cases have been confirmed 900 miles (1,500km) west of South Georgia, among southern fulmar on the Falkland Islands.
So far tests have confirmed bird flu deaths at eight sites across the Antarctic, and the disease is suspected with confirmation from tests still pending at 20 further sites where animals have died.
Researchers reported that a number of elephant seals had been exhibiting symptoms of avian flu, such as difficulty breathing, coughing and accumulations of mucus around the nose.
Lethargy, spasms and an inability to fly are symptoms in birds.
While a number of seabird cases have been confirmed, many – including the elephant seals – are still classed as suspected, pending lab results.
So far there are no recorded cases on the Antarctic mainland – home to unique ecosystems that are some of the world’s most isolated – but the disease is expected to arrive in the coming months as birds move.
( Phoebe Weston, 08.12.2023 )  ..  theguardian.com

The oppression of animals is the gateway drug to oppressing humans.
( Alex Hershaft )

Wherefore I say unto all who desire to be my disciples, keep your hands from bloodshed and let no flesh meat enter your mouths, for God is just and bountiful, who ordaineth that man shall live by the fruits and seeds of the earth alone.
( Jesus, The Gospel of the Nazarenes 38:4 )

Animals often talk more reasonable with their eyes than humans with their mouths.
( Ludovic Halévy )

Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened calf filled with hate.
( Proverbs 15:17 )

The Selfishness And Ignorance Of Man.
This commandment have I given you, that you love one another and all the creatures of the earth.
Love is the fulfilling of the Law.
Love is of the Lord, and the Lord is love.
Whoso loves not, knows not the Lord.
You are my disciples if you show mercy and love to all creatures, especially those that are weak and oppressed and suffer wrong.
For the whole earth is filled with dark places of cruelty, with pain and sorrow, by the selfishness and ignorance of man.
( Jesus, The Gospel of the Nazarenes 76:5-6 )

The Gospel of the Nazarenes is only labeled as apocryphal because it forbids the killing of animals for sacrifice or sustenance.
Today’s bible is the Roman, not Judeo-Christian, version of biblical events.
From the years 325-403, Emperor Constantine’s Council of Nicea re-wrote and re-edited most of the compassionate teachings of Jesus and other prophets to promote an agenda of hatred.

Your Hands Are Full Of Blood, Wash And Make Yourselves Clean.
The multitude of your sacrifices, what are they to me?
I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals.
I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts?
Atop bringing meaningless offerings.
Your incense is detestable to me.
New moons, sabbaths and convocations, I cannot bear your evil assemblies.
Your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates.
They have become a burden to me.
I am weary of bearing them.
When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you.
Even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen.
Your hands are full of blood, wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds out of my sight.
Stop doing wrong, learn to do right.
( The Bible, God speaking to Isaiah 1:15 )

If cruelty is evil, and God is all-compassionate and all-merciful, then why do people believe God is an animal-killing, bloodthirsty, murderous devil?
If slicing animals into pieces is permissible by God, then what horrible things could the Devil possibly do to animals?
In other words, if you believe God condones the killing of animals, then the God you glorify is no better than the Devil you condemn.
( Rose Winfold )

No blood offering of beast or bird, or man, can take away sin, for how can the conscience be purged from sin by the shedding of innocent blood?
No, it will increase the condemnation.
Is it not written in the Prophets, ‘Put away your blood sacrifices and your burnt offerings, and cease from the eating of flesh, for I spoke not to your fathers nor commanded them when I brought them out of Egypt concerning these things.’
And what does the eternal command you, but to be just, love, have mercy and walk humbly with the Law.
( Jesus, The Gospel of the Nazarenes 33:2-8 )

We will not be able to make up in eternity what we have done to the animals.
( Mark Twain )

The UK Tory Government Appoint A Wildlife Killer As Its Animal Welfare Minister.
The UK Government is facing calls to explain why it has appointed a wealthy, unelected shooting enthusiast as its animal welfare minister after it emerged he has backed the culling of seals and wild birds.
Robbie Douglas-Miller, who was given a peerage to allow him to become minister in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), owns a grouse moor in Scotland and has argued for the relaxation of rules on shooting wild birds that prey on salmon.
He is also on the board of a fishery which applied to obtain a licence to kill seals in 2021.
Last year he gained a licence to kill wild cormorants and sawbill ducks.
Douglas-Miller owns over 4,000 acres in Scotland and is relatively unknown in the environment sector.
( Helena Horton and Rowena Mason, 06.12.2023 )  ..  theguardian.com