PETA's Ingrid Newkirk

I just read one of the best interviews since being vegan.  PETA president and Co-founder, Ingrid Newkirk, sat down with Forbes to discuss animal cruelty on all levels. Ingrid even discusses religion and how animal cruelty relates to so many different points of view.  Here's my favorite part:


MT: What do you think makes humans ignore some cruelties?
IN: At PETA, we often say that the issue of how animals are treated isn’t just about them; it’s about us, how we behave.  It is about what we are thinking when we do violent things to others whom we find it difficult to relate to or whom we dismiss as too unimportant to take into consideration at all. A lot of people have culturally induced ethical blindness, but they can be cured! A lot of people profess to holding religion dear. One of the main tenets of Buddhism is that “all lives are equal.” Confucianism teaches us that “we shall treat everything in the world as one.” Jesus talked of being kind even to the “least of them,” of watching out for the smallest sparrow. Judaism and Islam have wonderful teachings about kindness to animals as a prime virtue. Whether or not we are religious, respecting others should be seen as just as important as looking out for ourselves, yet it requires discipline to change our bad habits that cause pain to animals. I think that the more we learn about animals, the harder it is to abuse them. For instance, that the average dog in a human family learns hundreds of household words without being taught them. Ants build boats to cross streams. Bats take food to nearby bats who are sick. Chimpanzees, crows, elephants, and even fish use tools. Octopuses learn how to open a jar simply by watching a person do it. Elephants cradle their dead relatives’ bones in their trunks, tears pouring down their faces. Little desert rats collect dew by rolling a stone in front of their burrow. Geese and pigeons mate for life, mourn, and become demonstrably depressed if a mate dies. All these things and many others have been measured, witnessed, studied, and published.

This part was very personal to me.  I have been criticized by family members for being vegan because it's not "God's way".  I beg to differ.  As Ingrid said above, "Jesus talked of being kind even to the 'least of them'."  I've never really known how to win this argument, but this is a great quote.  During the Last Supper, Jesus at bread and drank wine.  No meat.  Interesting, eh?


Ingrid really knows how to answer all of the typical questions (which is why she's the president), so the full article is definitely worth a read.  Here it is!