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Africans captured and forced into slavery were often compared to animals in an effort to justify their treatment. They were called “brutes” and “beasts”. Their lives were considered expendable, and many died at the hands of their oppressors. The same oppressive mentality behind those actions leads to the slaughter of animals today.
Beatings, lynchings and burnings take place today just as they did in the past – only the victims have changed. Young bears used for entertainment are captured and removed from their homelands and then beaten and burned on hot metal plates to “teach” them to dance. Cows, chickens and pigs have their throats slit, often while they are still conscious. Many animals are beaten, kicked and spat on by farm and abattoir workers who view them as objects of scorn, not as frightened individuals.
!["[Animal slavery] is still causing an amount of pain and suffering that can only be compared with that which resulted from the centuries of tyranny by white humans over black humans." – Peter Singer, author of Animal Liberation](quotes/peterSinger.gif)
In the tax-funded Tuskegee experiment in the US, which ended in 1972, impoverished black sharecroppers who had contracted syphilis were tricked into taking part in a “treatment plan” that – unbeknownst to them – did not offer any medical care. Experimenters documented the men’s declining health but did nothing to slow the disease, which can cause tumours, paralysis, blindness, insanity and death. One experimenter said, “We have no further interest in these patients until they die”.
Today, more than 100 million animals are tortured and killed in laboratories every year. Between 10 million and 11 million animals are experimented on annually in Europe, primarily in the UK. Currently, the UK uses more animals in experiments than at any other time since 1992. Many of these experiments – including infecting dogs with diseases, blinding kittens, dripping caustic chemicals into rabbits’ eyes and force-feeding poisons to monkeys – are paid for by taxpayers’ money, even though progressive, animal-free alternatives are available. Animals in laboratories suffer and die because they are considered “different” and “inferior” and are powerless to defend themselves.
We realise that all humans deserve protection from exploitation and abuse. Compassionate people understand that animals – with their abilities to think and feel – also deserve this consideration.
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