The Circle of Compassion

I recently had supper with a friend and mentioned that I feel like an abolitionist. I can't help but see a glaring injustice and horrifying cruelty toward a group of fellow beings, while others don't quite see it yet. She responded with, "Caitlin, I don't think it's like being an abolitionist. Animals just aren't as important as people."

I wondered after dinner why it is that people feel this way, and I think it's because animals can't talk. Well, obviously they can talk, but not in a language we can understand. Without language, their concerns can be ignored. So I think I understand now why I'm so drawn to protecting animals. It's because they're the ultimate victims. They're entirely innocent and have no human voice to plead for mercy. And in the case of domesticated animals, we're the ones who bring them into the world, so the way we treat them tells us in no uncertain terms who we are.

Comparing animal activism to abolitionism or the civil rights movement or the women's movement offends some people because they think it debases people. But in my mind, it in no way debases people, but only elevates animals. And by elevating animals, we in fact elevate people!

I advocate for animals for animals' sake, but also to help open and expand the human heart. My own heart has been opening, slowly for a couple of decades, but most especially in the last two years. I had no idea how animals were treated on factory farms, and I never thought about them in experimental labs. They were simply off my radar. But once you see the truth, your heart changes, your sensibilities change, and there's no going back.

The abolitionist movement, the civil rights movement, the women's liberation movement, all permanently changed our core beliefs. New values then were passed onto our children, and there's no reversing these things. The animal rights movement is happening right now and will widen our circle of compassion even further, and forever.

Every time we bother to stop and respectfully observe an animal, without exception, we're surprised and even amazed at his intelligence, his ability to communicate with his own species, and his clear desire to live unmolested. The more we look, the more we see.

We will look back on these times and find it absolutely beyond belief that a human being once didn't love and respect every animal - that he forced them into crates, ignored their screams for help, raped and mutilated them, experimented on them against their will, butchered them and ate them. Even now, these things are only done in utter secrecy. Can you imagine your neighbor doing these things next door? We're on a continuum, and the times, they are a changin'.