It is not an act of kindness to treat animals respectfully. It is an act of justice.
Interpretation
Treating animals with respect is fundamentally about their rights and justice, not just kindness.
This quote by Tom Regan emphasizes that respecting animals is not merely a matter of being kind; rather, it is a moral obligation rooted in justice. It suggests that animals have intrinsic rights that should be recognized and upheld, and treating them well is part of fulfilling those rights, much like any issue of justice in society.
In practice
During a speech on animal rights, one might use this quote to highlight the importance of justice for animals.
The other animals humans eat, use in science, hunt, trap, and exploit in a variety of ways, have a life of their own that is of importance to them apart from their utility to us. They are not only in the world, they are aware of it. What happens to them matters to them. Each has a life that fares better or worse for the one whose life it is.
What could be the basis of our having more inherent value than animals? Their lack of reason, or autonomy, or intellect? Only if we are willing to make the same judgment in the case of humans who are similarly deficient.
It is not larger, cleaner cages that justice demands...but empty cages; not traditional animal agriculture but a complete end to all commerce in the flesh of dead animals; not more humane hunting and trapping, but the total eradication of these barbarous practices.
I would encourage them never to forget that they were not always vegans. The self-righteousness of the recently converted hurts, it does not help, other animals.
Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is truth.
As a human being, member of society, you must clearly state your mind. It's a responsibility. It is the way you identify yourself otherwise you don't know who you are and why you are here.
There is a canyon of difference between doing your best to glorify God and doing whatever it takes to glorify yourself. The quest for excellence is a mark of maturity. The quest for power is childish.
It is not possible to conceive a democratic Guatemala, free and independent, without the indigenous identity shaping its character into all aspects of national existence.
But man is a fickle and disreputable creature and perhaps, like a chess-player, is interested in the process of attaining his goal rather than the goal itself.
He that can live alone resembles the brute beast in nothing, the sage in much, and God in everything.
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