If, as the Genesis story tells us, man first sinned when
Adam ate the apple Eve tempted him with in the Garden of Eden, surely his second great sin was succumbing to the temptation to kill and eat his fellow creatures, an event that may have first taken place during one of the glacial periods in prehistoric times when plant life, man’s original diet, temporarily disappeared under sheets of ice, or it may have happened because of the pride and prestige associated with the killing of the huge mammals that dominated large portions of the earth when man the hunter came upon the scene.
In any case, terror, violence, bloodshed, the slaughter of men, and ultimately war, it can be argued, all grew out of that fateful encounter.
Today there are few corners of the world where a hostile environment compels man to slaughter his four- legged kin, in imitation of his flesh eating ancestors, in order to sustain himself.
On the contrary, plant food in all its richness and variety is abundantly available in most areas of the world.
Yet the subjugation of the animal kingdom and the senseless war of aggression against it continues unabated. And a relentlessly cruel war it is, no- where more so than on the farm, in the stockyards, and in the slaughterhouses.
This is especially true today when the business of raising and slaughtering livestock for food in the developed countries has been largely taken over by multinational corporations.
The first section of this book, which factually describes the frustration, pain, and terror suffered by animals destined for dinner tables, is intended to acquaint readers with these sufferings so they may better understand the rationale of the precept of not to kill but to preserve life.
Almost as frightful as the cruelties inflicted on livestock is the maltreatment of animals utilized for experimental research in the laboratories of universi- ties, the military establishments of developed countries, and large commercial enterprises.
Although this aspect of the oppression of animals is outside the scope of this treatise, it is nevertheless worth touching upon.
Millions of primates, dogs, cats, sheep, rabbits, pigs, birds, rodents, and other animals are routinely subjected to experiments and tests that can be described at best as a torment and at worst as agonizingly lethal to them.
It is estimated that nearly it million animals were “sacrificed” to research in alone.
The usual justification for this testing is that it is indispensable to gaining vital knowledge that cannot be gotten otherwise than by utilizing human beings in the experiments, and that if it were prohibited it would seriously interfere with research that ultimately benefits humanity.
Many scientists disagree with these contentions.
One scientist, Dr. Benne Derby, an eminent neurologist, is authority for the statement that percent of animal experiments are repetitive and inadequate.
Other researchers say that a great deal of testing yields only trivial results, that much is unreliable because of interspecies inapplicability, and that in many cases the information sought can be more humanely and more ad- vantageously obtained through in vitro testing and other non-animal alternatives now available but little utilized.
In fact so alarmed have a number of scientists become about the dimensions of pointless animal testing that they have formed an organization, the Scientists’ Center for Animal Welfare, to protect experimental animals from the cruel excesses of their unfeeling colleagues.
No discussion of animal welfare would
