Work Animals

OVERVIEW

From the moment humans domesticated animals, we sought ways to put them to work for our benefit. Some animals, like dogs, cooperated in exchange for a regular food source. Most animals were captured from the wild and forced to perform tasks for us. Animals have been used in our wars, to plow the land and gather our food, to transport us, carry our messages, haul our heavy loads, guard our possessions, including herds of other animals, guide and serve our handicapped, test our drugs and weapons on their own bodies, and entertain us. Modern technology provides substitutes for most of these uses.

In return for their labor, loyalty, and the sacrifice of their lives, we abuse, betray, and abandon them. Increased awareness that non-human animals have consciousness and feelings requires that we ask ourselves whether it is morally acceptable to use animals as disposable objects, put on earth merely to serve humans, without desires, needs, and an independent destiny of their own.

The false barriers we erected to separate ourselves from animals are falling, one by one. The maternal feelings of animal mothers for their offspring and their willingness to endanger their own lives for their young have been shown to equal that of human mothers. We have learned that animals have language, make and use tools, reason, plan, take care of their sick and old, appreciate beauty, and grieve for their dead.

Imagine yourself in the place of animals forced into service, and consider whether we have the right to go on using them as though they were inanimate objects, put on earth purely to serve us in whatever way we deem fit. Isn't it time for a radical change for the better in our relationship with animals?