I look forward to the day when this has been corrected, when our society is at peace with its conscience because it respects and lives in harmony with all forms of life. I look forward eagerly to the enactment of laws against such cruelty to animals, laws that will guide humankind to actions consistent with an ethic of appreciation for Creation and respect for the lives of our fellow creatures.
Though I have felt anger at the outrages inflicted on innocent animals, I know that many of today’s farmers are basically decent human beings who have become caught in a vicious circle of economic necessity, seeing no choice but to follow the lead of the multinational agrichemical conglomerates.
The laws that are needed to restrain those who would in their insensitivity abuse animals will not arise out of ill will toward those who have become instruments of such cruelty. True justice never punishes for the sake of punishment but instead seeks to provide the experiences that will educate and reform. Since insensitivity to nature is the real problem, our intent should be not to blame but to guide these unfortunate people to an awareness of the lives and needs of other living creatures, and thus to their own potential for living in an ethical relationship with the rest of life.
Those who are so alienated from other beings that they would mistreat them are in need of a deeper respect for life, for themselves, and for a more meaningful sense of their own value and integrity. We need laws against cruelty to animals, not just for the animals’ sake.
Interestingly, legend has it that there was once a time when such a form of justice actually prevailed. This was a time, it is said, when an ancient people sought to live in accord with the laws of Creation. As a result, when disputes and conflicts arose, the remedy was often remarkable.
Here is such a case, chronicled from ancient Egypt. The times are different, but the message is the same. A 15-year-old boy has gotten himself in trouble time after time for his cruelty to animals. In spite of repeated punishments from his father, however, his actions have persisted. Neighbors have finally appealed to the judge for help, and he has decreed that the boy be watched without his knowledge. This is done, and the boy is seen burying a cat alive. When confronted with his action, the boy shows no sense of shame or remorse and says defiantly, “You can beat me, but I won’t mind. I’m used to being beaten, but you can never make me scream!” He pulls off his shirt and displays a back that is deeply scarred from the previous beatings his father has administered. To the counselor who comes in to see him he brags about the number of animals he has tortured, and the amount of pain that has been inflicted upon him in return. It is not an easy case for the judge to handle. But fortunately, there is a seer who can look into the boy’s psyche and see what has occurred that has made him this way. The seer understands the pattern the boy is locked into. He understands that in the boy’s clouded mind, his cruelty to animals is actually part of an effort to expiate the guilt he feels for his mother having died during his birth, something his father never lets him forget. It is plain to the seer that it would be pointless to punish the boy, for to do so would simply reinforce the guilt that motivated the whole behavior in the first place.
The seer decides to take drastic steps.
The next day, in the boy’s food there is mixed a violent cathartic. As soon as the boy’s bowels start cramping he is told that he has a rare and dangerous disease and is warned that unless he is both brave and obedient he will likely die. Over the next few days he is given other concoctions, which keep him intermittently in pain and also make him sufficiently weak to prevent him from having any desire to exert his independence and reconstruct his accustomed self-image. Exactly as though he is suffering from a very serious disease, he is cared for by one who is in training to become a true healer, a girl of 20 who is both beautiful and compassionate. She holds his hand to help him bear the pain and smooths his forehead until he falls asleep. She washes and feeds him as though he is a baby, and when he grows a little stronger, she tells him stories of the ways of peace and love.
As he convalesces, he conceives a deep devotion and gratitude to his nurse and asks that he might be allowed to serve her in however humble a capacity. She tells him that one of her duties is to look after the geese, that the geese are very special to her, and that it would be a great help if he would do this for her. Her words cause him to remember his many cruelties, and he begins to cry bitterly and says that he dare not do what she asks, for sometimes almost against his will he has been cruel to animals, and so he is very afraid that he might attack her geese, an act that, to him now, would be like causing her personal injury.
She says to him: “You were so ill that you might have died. I asked the gods that you might be born again; they listened, and you recovered. The cruelty that you once inflicted and the pain you suffered are as though they had never been. They are dead, but you are alive. Because of the link between us, you will never forget again the link between you and your younger brothers and sisters.”
The boy is filled with hope but even so does not entirely believe her. She brings him a kitten, but he protests, saying he can’t be trusted with the kitten. She smiles and teaches him how to scratch the kitten’s throat and ears and points out how loudly it purrs when he does so. “It likes you,” she says. “It knows you can be trusted, and I know you can be trusted, too, so I will leave you alone with the kitten now.”
The boy doesn’t know what to think and protests, but she just smiles and kisses his forehead.
When she returns, several hours later, she finds the boy asleep, with the kitten curled up beside him, purring.
The boy grows to become one of the kindest veterinarians in all the land, and his manner with animals is so gentle and clear that even the most terrified and injured of them instinctively know they can trust him.1
It looks to me as if many of the people who mistreat the animals raised for today’s meats and eggs are not that different from this boy, likewise crying out for wise and compassionate help. The lack of caring they display for the animals in their keeping stems from an alienation from themselves and from life, not from innate cruelty. Merely blaming and hating them does nothing to heal the separation and isolation out of which their cruelties spring. Our goal should be to help them learn to act according to an authentic respect for other creatures, for in so doing they can come to feel a kinship with life and their own value as part of Creation. We urgently need laws that would guide them in this direction.
Of course, in some instances it may take a serious remedy to be effective. Sometimes only a severe corrective is able to produce the needed empathy in someone who otherwise remains indifferent to the suffering of his fellow creatures. Here is another such case from ancient times.
A man is accused of mistreating his oxen. The judge inspects the animals and sees that they are indeed in bad condition and have deep sores on their shoulders from an ill-fitting yoke. He tells the owner that this is not good, thinking that perhaps the man is ignorant, or stupid, and has not seen the hurt done to the animals. But the man protests defensively that his oxen are thin because they are too lazy to eat, that the work they do in the fields is light enough for a child, and that he envies the oxen their contentment. And the judge says: “There shall be no longer any need for you to have to envy them. For now you will have the opportunity to share their contentment, by doing yourself this work you say is ‘child’s play.’ Tomorrow you shall be yoked to the plow, and you will draw it back and forth under the hot sun until the field is furrowed.”
The judge gives the man’s oxen to a neighbor whose animals are well cared for and says that the man may regain his oxen when he has finished furrowing the field. Furthermore, his oxen will be inspected thereafter, and if it is found that he has mistreated them, he will receive unto himself whatever treatment he has given unto them. But if it is found that he now treats them well, then it will be known that he can be trusted with oxen, and so his herd will be expanded.2
If a person refuses time and again to imagine how he would feel in another creature’s shoes, sometimes the only remedy that will bring about the needed empathy is to physically place him there.
In some cases the conditions suffered by today’s