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The very people who shudder over the cruelty of the hunter are apt to forget that slaughter, in the grimmest sense of the word, is a process they entrust daily to the butcher; and that unlike the game of the forests, even the dumbest creatures of the slaughterhouse know what is in store for them.
Lewis Mumford
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Humans often overlook the cruelty involved in food production while condemning hunters for their actions.

This quote by Lewis Mumford highlights the irony in how society perceives cruelty in different forms of animal slaughter. It points out that while some people condemn hunters for their brutal methods, they conveniently ignore the systemic violence and fear experienced by animals in slaughterhouses, suggesting a disconnect in humane values depending on the context of animal death.

Themes

CrueltyButcherHunterSlaughterAnimal Rights

In practice

Example use cases

During a speech about ethical eating, one can use this quote to illustrate the hidden cruelties in food production.

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Without fullness of experience, length of days is nothing. When fullness of life has been achieved, shortness of days is nothing. That is perhaps why the young have usually so little fear of death; they live by intensities that the elderly have forgotten.
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Quote by Lewis Mumford | QuoteProject