Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings

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For centuries, humans have been torturing animals for personal benefit. These tortures have been selfishly justified by stating the necessity for food procurement, upgrading technology, and for boosting commerce. The most disturbing crimes against animals are the ones carried out merely for fashion, sports or pleasure. e.g. canned hunting. Those people who recognize this cruelty and raise their voices against it, are our saving grace. Here are a few quotes from some such individuals.


Animal Abuse

Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages. - Thomas Edison (American Inventor and Scientist)

Compassion for animals is intimately connected with goodness of character; and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man. - Arthur Schopenhauer (German Philosopher)

We have enslaved the rest of animal creation and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form. - William Ralph Inge (British Author)

For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love. - Pythagoras (Greek Philosopher)

Show me the enforced laws of a state for the prevention of cruelty to animals and I in turn will give you a correct estimate of the refinement, enlightenment, integrity and equity of that commonwealth's people. - L.T. Danshiell (Animal Rights Advocate)

He who harms animals has not understood or renounced deeds of sin ... Those whose minds are at peace and who are free from passions do not desire to live at the expense of others. - Sourced from Acharanga Sutra (Jainism - Non-Vedic Religion of Old India)

The awful wrongs and sufferings forced upon the innocent, helpless, faithful animal race form the blackest chapter in the whole world's history. - Edward Freeman (English Historian and Commentator)

Nothing living should ever be treated with contempt. Whatever it is that lives, a man, a tree, or a bird, should be touched gently, because the time is short. Civilization is another word for respect for life... - Elizabeth Goudge (Author)

I hope to make people realize how totally helpless animals are, how dependent on us, trusting as a child must that we will be kind and take care of their needs ...[they] are an obligation put on us, a responsibility we have no right to neglect, nor to violate by cruelty. - James Herriot (English Veterinarian and Author)

As custodians of the planet it is our responsibility to deal with all species with kindness, love, and compassion. That these animals suffer through human cruelty is beyond understanding. Please help to stop this madness. - Richard Gere (American Actor)

Cruelty to dumb animals is one of the distinguishing vices of low and base minds. Wherever it is found, it is a certain mark of ignorance and meanness; a mark which all the external advantages of wealth, splendor, and nobility, cannot obliterate. It is consistent neither with learning nor true civility. - William Jones (English Philologist and Jurist)

Anyone who has accustomed himself to regard the life of any living creature as worthless is in danger of arriving also at the idea of worthless human lives. - Albert Schweitzer (Alsatian Theologian, Musician, and Medical Missionary)

To inflict cruelties on defenseless creatures, or condone such acts, is to abuse one of the cardinal tenets of a civilized society - reverence for life. - Dr. Jon Evans

Our treatment of animals is important to our own internal state. If we are to expand our horizons, to grow to understand what the relatedness of each and every thing means, then our love and appreciation of all life is essential. Our respect and reverence for all living things will be reflected in our own living. - Bill Schul (Author of The Psychic Power of Animals)

If a man aspires toward a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals. - Leo Tolstoy (Russian Novelist and Philosopher)

Our treatment of animals will someday be considered barbarous. There cannot be perfect civilization until man realizes that the rights of every living creature are as sacred as his own. - Dr. David Starr Jordan (American Biologist and Educator)

We cannot have peace among men whose hearts find delight in killing any living creature. - Rachel Carson (American Author and Marine Biologist)

We cannot glimpse the essential life of a caged animal, only the shadow of its former beauty. - Julia Allen Field

I have always felt that the way we treat animals is a pretty good indicator of the compassion we are capable of for the human race. - Ali McGraw (American Actress)

The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men. - Leonardo da Vinci (Italian Painter, Sculptor, Architect, Musician, Engineer, and Scientist)

Murderers ... very often start out by killing and torturing animals as kids. - Robert K. Ressler (Former FBI Serial Killer Profiler)

If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men... - St. Francis of Assisi (Roman Catholic friar, founder of the Franciscans Order)

These birds and animals and fish cannot speak, but they can suffer, and our God who created them, knows their sufferings, and will hold him who causes them to suffer unnecessarily to answer for it. It is a sin against their Creator. - George Q. Cannon (Animal Activist)

Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/animal-abuse-quotes.html