Is it OK to compare the suffering of animals with that of humans?

In one of his blog posts Morrissey writes about the 'perverted impulse' that drove a Mexican matador (or in his words 'serial killer') to kill another being that posed no threat to her. In the same blog post he also equates bullfighting – a 'sport' that tortures bulls – with the torture of prisoners in Guantanamo, and paedophilia.

They may seem bizarre connections to make, although Morrissey has used the paedophilia comparison before. "I see no difference between eating animals and paedophilia," he said in an interview last year. "They are both rape, violence, murder."

In one of my own previous blog posts I failed to make the connection, and assumed he was being deliberately provocative. However, I can see now how it may be argued that female cows are raped in order to produce milk. And in order to impregnate them, bulls too are raped to produce semen. 'Rape' – male and female – may be a term used to describe the process by which semen is procured from bulls, and cows are inseminated. Although the perpetrators of both actions will be doing it for reasons that are different from human beings who commit rape, the process still involves an exertion of power over a victim and a betrayal of trust. The milk that we consume is not a by-product in the natural life cycle of a cow living in the wild, or as part of a small-holding, as it may once have been, say, prior to the Industrial Revolution.

My questions are, do the cows and bulls know? To what extent can they perceive what is going on? Some humans may say that they are dumb animals who have no idea. And to them I would ask the same question: how do you know? Animals cannot speak human languages so they can't voice an objection in a way in which humans may easily perceive – apart from struggling, kicking and crying out. Although interpretations as to what animals mean when they interact with us always vary, the fact that there's a need for restraining devices – fences, pens, crates, and 'rape racks', Mediaeval-looking torture contraptions – suggests that the animals are not too happy in the matter.

The question of whether animals experience the world in a way that's similar to the way humans is, however, a complex and controversial one. Words like 'rape', 'paedophilia', 'murder', and 'holocaust', which are traditionally used in purely human contexts, can seem inappropriate and insulting when applied to animals as it implies that humans and animals are the same, and that will always cause offence to some. The fact that, technically, humans are animals tends to get overlooked, and when it comes to animal suffering, a lot is taken for granted. Animals have been at the mercy of humans to some extent or other for as long as animals and humans have co-existed, and we are just used to it. Add to that the thousands of years of religious promulgation and propaganda placing humans at the centre of the universe, in addition to the more recent unelected capitalist forces manipulating people often against their own awareness into consuming far more meat and animal products than we need, and thus consenting in the torture of animals for monetary gain, and we have a confused situation. The illusion of human superiority over animals has been embedded and entrenched in human cultures all over the world for many thousands of years. It is sewn in to our being.

Old habits die hard. Animals, on the other hand, die easy, and are easily dispensable.

Certainly, what is happening to elephants, rhinos, pangolins, tigers, lions, snow leopards and numerous other species around the world can be described as a holocaust. And as long as tensions in comparisons between human and animal suffering persist, animal holocausts will continue.

Perhaps one response it is to re-evaluate how humans perceive ourselves in relation to animals. While Darwin and his like went a long way towards this in the face of universal and pervasive religious superstition, even the word 'evolution' suggests that humans are on a higher level than other animals, who are behind us on the journey.

But this was not always the case. One of the greatest tragedies in the history of humanity is how the practices of native cultures around the globe, who lived with attitudes of reverence and awe towards the natural world, have been lost, stamped out not only of mainstream memory, but almost of record. Moving passages, such as these quoted by Lisa Kemmerer in her essay, Hunting Tradition: Treaties, Law, and Subsistence Killing, explain how 'mythologies reveal a constant tension “between the necessity to eat and the killing of animals, which [were] believed to possess consciousness, will, and soul” (Harrod 63, 159). 

'... hunting and fishing were as important spiritually as nutritionally (Brown 73, 111, 120): “the food that gave them life was regarded as sacred,” and “what was eaten and how it was acquired took on an importance that transcended survival” (Schmidt 45-46). Killing wildlife was a sacred responsibility, and hunters felt obligated to uphold “a code of moral and social etiquette” that encompasses all creatures (R. Nelson, Make 228)... Anymals were viewed as powerful enough to decide whether or not to allow a hunter to eat. Anymals were thought to appreciate the needs of others, and respond accordingly, even permitting their own death (Feit 421).

'“The hunter reveres the animal, and asks it to make a gift of itself so that humans can eat; animals comply and give themselves” to the worthy hunter (Preece 166). Wildlife could only be killed by the deserving with the permission of those killed (Preece 165).

'...The spiritual power of wildlife, combined with the physical dependence of human beings, colored the human-wildlife relationship. If people suffered food shortages they were not apt to say, "I cannot kill deer anymore," but rather, "Deer don't want to die for me" (Heizer 1980:211).'

Lack of reverence and awe towards animals is partly responsible for current widespread animal rights violations, and perhaps we would all do well to cultivate a bit of gentle reciprocity while we eat animal products. Insulated from the natural world as most of us are, it's almost as if the suffering of animals isn't real. While once a sacred process, the hunting, capture and slaughter of animals is now a hidden abomination. We might be a long way off change, but at least while we eat them we could honour the animals who died in order for us to eat by acknowledging the sacrifice they made for us.

"If you quite rightly feel horrified at the Norway killings, then it surely naturally follows that you feel horror at the murder of ANY innocent being," said Morrissey shortly after the massacre in 2011. "You cannot ignore animal suffering simply because animals 'are not us.'"

I wonder if Leonardo da Vinci knew that even
500 years after his death that day would be no nearer.

While provocation may well be part of his mission, Morrissey's powerful statements about animals are reminiscent of those of Leonardo da Vinci, and are needed in order to challenge prevailing perceptions and shake people out of wilful blindness.

While there is a growing awareness of the sentience and intelligence of animals, the truth of how they are treated in order to feed us is so painful that it is easy to look away. It seems that Morrissey, at least, is coming full-circle.

It's certainly true that there are aspects of animal life that are worth aspiring to. It may sound simplistic and naïve, but I would rather be like my cat, Vincenzo (Chenny) – loving, uncynical, unencumbered by emotional baggage and living in the joy of the present moment – than bound up (as I often am) in what Buddhists call wrong perception, wrong thinking and wrong speech. Writing about dogs, the author Milan Kundera notes how "[they] are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent." How about cultivating more of this kind of attitude – 'being more dog' – ourselves? Certainly even as a cat, Chenny – who I often refer to as not only my 'little black panther', but also my 'little boy' and 'little Buddha' – offers inspiration in this. In fact, it is he who, since he came to live with us, has been responsible for my re-awakening and new-found passion for animals.

It is not only humans who suffer at the hands of terrorists. Je suis Charlie? Je suis Chenny.