Slavery

“Comparing the suffering of animals to that of blacks (or any other oppressed group) is offensive only to the speciest: one who has embraced the false notions of what animals are like.” (P.321) During the time when African-Americans were enslaved and were treated like animals, they had their liberties taken from them without a second thought from their captors. No remorse was ever shown to a slave who would stand up to their “masters” instead they were met with whips or even death to pound submission into them. The likeness between the treatment of slaves and animals are so parallel with one another. “To deny our similarities to animals is to deny and undermine our own power.” (P.321)



The placement of the PETA campaign by the MLK statue was genius for obvious reasons, the similarites between the injustices of African-Americans and animals are identical.

When you read the manuscript for Earthlings it sounds like a novel about slavery, all you need to do is insert the word slaves where you see animals and insert plantations where you see slaughterhouses. “What happens in slaughterhouses in a variation on the theme of exploitation of the weak by the strong.” (P.286) “In transportation, animals are packed so tightly into trucks, they are practically on top of one another. Heat, freezing temperatures, fatigue, trauma, and health conditions will kill some of these animals in route to the slaughterhouses.” (P.287) The way these two groups were treated (and animals are still being treated) is disgusting, we use them and act like what we are doing is completely legal. When slavery began many of the southern states saw absolutely nothing wrong with slavery, and neither did our government. It wasn’t until other people became aware and began to speak out did the country begin to shift its idea about what makes a slave a human being worth human rights.



“Animals have done us no harm and they have no power of resistance…There is something so very dreadful…in tormenting those who have never harmed us, who cannot defend themselves, who are utterly in our power.” (P.311D) If I were a plantation farmer I don’t think I too could harm someone who had never wronged me. So, after seeing a display or documentary as powerful as Earthling, I would most likely free my slaves, or at least keep them as paid help. I don’t see how so many people can cause so much pain without any remorse of it.



Jeremy Bentham said, “The question is not, Can they reason? Nor, Can they talk? But, Can they suffer? Why should the law refuse its protection to any sensitive being...The time will come when humanity will extend its mantle over everything which breathes."(P.313)He was referring of course to the suffering of non-humans mammals. His words express the nature the mankind has shown all creatures that are considered beneath them. Many people would justify their consumption and murder of animals with a simple, “it’s a necessity to eat.” Yes, we need food to survive, but we consider that if we were to become vegetarians. We would all decrease our chances of heart disease; we’d improve our environment, reduce toxic pollution, and save millions of innocent lives (of animals).