Thinking of animals at Christmas

A tiny kitten rescued from an illegal breeding mill in
North Carolina earlier this year

Animals seem to be making the news more and more at the moment. It's wonderful that a court in Argentina has recognised Sandra the orang-utan as a non-human person: a sentient and perceptive individual with a unique personality and rich inner life, and who deserves freedom from incarceration. However, I do agree that this ruling will not constitute a welfare revolution for all animals. Things will never improve for animals when there is a disproportionate focus on individual cases at the expense of the wider context. Over-population, habitat loss, poaching, trafficking and horrendous animal rights abuses continue across the world all the time, and all need immediate and constant attention. Like all change, it depends on changes in social attitudes, and these always take decades, if they ever happen at all, and too much human interest is at stake. I hope that Sandra's case may mark the beginning of something better.


I'm always interested to read the comments that are left below articles that discuss animals having rights. While many are positive and supportive, others show a lot of resistance and aggression. Arguments used against other species being recognised as non-human beings who deserve rights include them not being able to speak our human languages, even though it's obvious they can understand more than we realise. They may not be able to discuss Heidegger or Hegel, or the intricacies of the legalities currently assessing their futures, but they communicate on a much deeper level. While most species may not have 'self-awareness', in as much as they may not recognise themselves in a mirror, they certainly have a consciousness that includes a basic form of self-awareness that manifests itself in the interests of themselves and their family groups (like these cows who escaped slaughter from a meat plant in Idaho) the ability to perceive good or ill-will, and to remember kindnesses. As that Wikipedia page there states, Descartes' 'I think, therefore I am' theory has been cited as a major factor in the mistreatment of animals over the centuries. Dominating western thinking for so long, it has to be one of the most damaging cons in the history of humanity, anthropocentricism at its worst, as it fails to take into account the probability of consciousness existing outside the human mind. What about the time before humans existed? Did consciousness just appear when we evolved to be humans, or did it evolve with us? And if humanity was wiped out tomorrow, would consciousness still exist in the form of energy? It is highly likely that there is intelligent life on other planets, and if more highly evolved than us, would they deny us rights in the way some would deny them to animals now? Surely discussions concerning the nature of consciousness must take questions like these into account? Measuring and comparing animals by our own perceived superior standards is simplistic and not a test that's useful. We are not superior to animals when they too have their own unique gifts and talents that benefit the world.

Other recent news stories about animals include the moving footage of the monkey in India who saved his friend who'd been electrocuted on a railway line. Assuming this monkey does not have 'consciousness' and self awareness, does that not make this even more amazing?

Then there are the baby elephants that were captured and being held at gunpoint in Zimbabwe, destined for zoos in China. Kidnapped from their families, their absence will be causing the most heartbreaking trauma to them and their families. While Christianity encourages us to look up to heaven, or to remember God born as a man, it's to the earth I want to direct my gaze, to its soil, trees, plants, elements, birds and animals. As so many of them continue to suffer, I hope that 2015 will bring improvements to their welfare all over the world.