Superior

There really isn't much to say on this comparison of human-slavery and animal-slavery. Humans are simply the masters of reason, and with logic, one can make the connection or dismiss the verity of the similarities between these two topics. As this issue is evaluated today, only a handful compared to the entire population of Earth have made this connection. Human slavery, particularly Black Slavery, has already been deemed as morally wrong, so what makes a fox subject to such cruelty? Jeremy Bentham hopes for the best; "[some] have already discovered that the blackness of skin is no reason why a human being should be abandoned without redress to the caprice of a tormentor. It may come one day to be recognized, that the number of legs, the villosity of the skin, or the termination of the os sacrum, are reasons equally insufficient for abandoning a sensitive being to the same fate" [(Spiegel, 32) also (Anthology, 313)].

Not Much to Discuss...


There really isn't much to say because the connection is an experience, and it can only occur if the person is willing to make it. Forget about human superiority, rather think about animal inferiority. A much more shocking term. I for one imagine a pride of lions and a herd of buffaloes with buffaloes as inferior. I don't imagine man is superior in this case because I would be afraid of a lion, and wits wouldn't help me at all (when it comes to lions, I'm more of an ostrich type of person). Now, thinking of humans and lions, I can see a jeep full of hunters simply waiting, in a sense, stalking the lion! This is a very vivid imagination. Already I can feel the heat of the Serengeti, but this is the lion's home. The lion exercises dominion over these plains. One doesn't try and kill a lion, or any animal, for fun! Oops! I'm sorry. I forgot we humans hunt for sport.

This is Fun... terrifying fun!!


Remarkable how we can reason killing as fun. For a long while, I believed there to be a good reason for hunting, but I was disappointed. Imagine the lion again, jaws dripping of blood from a fresh kill, and while you're at it, imagine the whole pride with the same blood and gore again. Beasts dominating in nature. Surely, this is animal superiority, but now, imagine yourself there. With no weapon, only tools like your legs, arms and feet. I can only imagine how precious they must be to you right now as while you're reading I'm running away from the very thought of that hungry and brutal pride of lions! Superiority is for the predator alone, but humans are the most dangerous predator on the planet.

This is What Happens



For this reason, it is crucial to understand how we humans exercise our superiority. It's not with brute force like the lions. No! Our taste is much more subtle, much more cruel and extremely economic. Imagine a calf. Naturally, it's on a ranch; that's where cows are in today's economic world. So imagine hundreds of them. A rancher obviously needs to mark his cows so that he can know exactly which ones are his/hers. So imagine his relation with the animal. I would think it must be personal, but the word industry takes the personal out of everything. Let me provide you with a brief description from an ex-ranch hand of a method of control. "We used to throw 'em on the ground and cut their balls off with a pen-knife. Didn't give them any pain killer, are you kidding? And that's not all; at the same time, we'd brand 'em and cut off their horns" (Spiegel, 28). So, imagine the branding of the calf, the de-horning and the nuder-ing. Now, imagine all of these at once. Can you see the suffering? Can you hear the creature's screams? Can you feel the force of its struggle? This is human superiority. Surely, if we're truly superior, we'd find merciful methods to make animals our means to an end, but we are not superior. We, humans, are the masters of animals. Our will dictates their life.

Calf-Branding!


Maybe now it is clear. There really isn't much to discuss. Perhaps you've been able to understand the nature of animal-slavery. Perhaps you would rather remain ignorant so as to prolong the bliss, but if you can't understand the similarity between animal slavery and human slavery, then you stand as a humble being, firm in your beliefs and unwilling to consider different perspective. Oops! I think I mis-used humble. Can you make the connection?