Animals and Slavery

Wrong.

http://rustbeltradical.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/slave_auction.jpg

Slavery is one of the horrifically ironic aspects of America's early history. In Philadelphia, a group of old white men drafted documents promising freedom and equality for all members of American society. But at the same time, a hundred miles away in the same country, a black man was being forced to work in slavery simply because he was not white and he was from Africa. This dichotomy in taught was never to last, and eventually slavery was abolished, although the scars from this strange time still remain and effect the United States to this day.

So it is little surprise to me that people who regard our current treatment of animals as cruel and believe that animals as requiring many of the same basic rights we afford each other would compare slavery to animal rights issues. The claim is that slavery, specifically the enslavement of African in the United States, bears remarkable similarities to the way we treat animals for economic reasons. The belief is that animals have the right to not be treated as slaves, as objects, as commidites, in the same way that black have the right to not be treated in the same way.

Once again I am unmoved. My main point of contention? Black people were just that, black people. Not black non-humans, but black humans. What is so horrifying about slavery is that it was a system where human beings were willing to put OTHER human beings in such a horrifying system. Yes animals can feel pain, yes Blue the horse may have appeared "like a craze person (Course Anthology 317)," but does that mean they truly suffer like humans suffer? Was Blue aware of his enslavement, or was he simply distressed for an unexplainable reason? We may never know, but I find it a little hard to believe that Blue was dying of a broken heart, as Alice Walker (who I have immense respect for) believed so.

Not Wrong.

http://www.worldsmartkids.com/images/Cattle_Drive.JPG

I also disagree with Alice Walker in her claim that animals "were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites or women for men (Dreaded Comparison 14)." No I do not disagree with the statement on a factual basis. What I disagree with is the tone that Walker uses in her statement. Animals were not MADE for us, but we can still eat them if we want to, if they will provide for us nutritionally and economically. We cannot use black people as slaves because they are human beings as well. Nowhere in nature do animals use other animals of their own species for their own goals. Yes there is competition, even muder, but never slavery. That is why slavery is wrong: it goes against nature, humanity, and morality. Eating animals and using animal products does not go against nature...in fact, it is completely natural.

And that for me, in a nutshell, is why I will not even consider the "human and animal slavery" comparison.