animals are people too
When Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps were finally opened to public scrutiny, the reaction was shock and horror.
But the truth is, prejudice against Jews had ancient roots in Europe and most 'good' (properly socialized) Germans were not of a mind to look into matters too closely.
This is not to say that most Europeans would have condoned the wholesale slaughter and worse that became the fate of European Jews. But, it is to say that there existed enough of a sense that 'they are not us' to allow Auschwitz to be built and operated.
In the same way, most members of the 'first world' consider the tragedies of those in the 'third world'.
As we watch 'third world' communities bombed, youths raped or tortured, or young children penned while starving; we are not moved as we would be if the same were happening in our own communities or to our own children.
What is happening 'over there' or to 'them' does not constitute an emergency.
Similarly, and even more so, we are disconnected, largely unconscious and unfeeling and thus unperturbed by the fate of other creatures, in particular, those reared to be eaten.
Their miserable lives are happening generally far from urban and suburban centers, and if we happen to drive by a feedlot, we look blindly, not with a sense of passing another fully awake being, but only a 'cow' or a 'pig'.
Yet, these creatures have all the same emotions, intellects, pain receptors, fear sense and worry about their future that each of us have. And, when they are in line to be slaughtered, they do in fact feel just as you or I would in the same situation.
Our attitudes with respect to other creatures, like our prejudices regarding other races and religions, are inherited. We do not individually decide these attitudes. They are learned through the acculturation process. And only a minority (in every age) seem to find good reason to question the dominant beliefs that are learned through the acculturation (socialization) process.
The day is not far off when today's holocausts are reckoned. These holocausts will be placed alongside the very real fact that abusing and killing animals not only did not benefit humans, it compromised their health and devastated eco-systems across the globe.
A few Jews were still alive when Auschwitz was finally closed. The fact that it happened in time to save their lives meant the world to them. It was their personal emergency and in these rare cases, liberation came just in time.
There are billions of animals around the world. They are living just such a nightmare. Hoping that you will awaken from your errant acculturation (that taught you that other creatures do not have the same feelings you do, do not feel the same pains...) in time to save their lives and those of their children.
This is today's gravest emergency and the very real and terrifying emergency into which each of these billions of animals' lives have been placed.
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"The soul is the same in all living creatures, although the body of each is different."
Hippocrates (Greek physician 460-370 BC. Considered the father of modern medicine.)
