Animals, My Bretheren and best friends ;

[Guest guest]

Animals, My Bretheren and best friends ;

Dear Friends:

You asked me why I do not eat meat? and you are wondering at the reasons of my

behavior. Perhaps you think I took a vow -- some kind of penitence -- denying me

all the glorious pleasures of eating meat. You remember juicy steaks, succulent

fishes, wonderfully tasted sauces, deliciously smoked ham and thousand wonders

prepared out of meat, charming thousands of human palates; certainly you will

remember the delicacy of roasted chicken. Now, you see, I am refusing all these

pleasures and you think that only penitence, or a solemn vow, a great sacrifice

could deny me that manner of enjoying life, induce me to endure a great

resignment.

You look astonished, you ask the question: " But why and what for? " And you are

wondering that you nearly guessed the very reason. But if I am, now, trying to

explain you the very reason in one concise sentence, you will be astonished once

more how far your guessing had been from my real motive. Listen to what I have

to tell you:

 

I refuse to eat animals because I cannot nourish myself by the sufferings and by

the death of other creatures. I refuse to do so, because I suffered so painfully

myself that I can feel the pains of others by recalling my own sufferings.

I feel happy, nobody persecutes me; why should I persecute other beings or cause

them to be persecuted?

I feel happy, I am no prisoner, I am free; why should I cause other creatures to

be made prisoners and thrown into jail?

I feel happy, nobody harms me; why should I harm other creatures or have them

harmed?

I feel happy, nobody wounds me; nobody kills me; why should I wound or kill

other creatures or cause them to be wounded or killed for my pleasure and

convenience?

Is it not only too natural that I do not inflict on other creatures the same

thing which, I hope and fear, will never be inflicted on me? Would it not be

most unfair to do such things for no other purpose than for enjoying a trifling

physical pleasure at the expense of others' sufferings, others' deaths? These

creatures are smaller and more helpless than I am, but can you imagine a

reasonable man of noble feelings who would like to base on such a difference a

claim or right to abuse the weakness and the smallness of others? Don't you

think that it is just the bigger, the stronger, the superior's duty to protect

the weaker creatures instead of persecuting them, instead of killing them?

" Noblesse oblige. " I want to act in a noble way.

I recall the horrible epoch of inquisition and I am sorry to state that the time

of tribunals for heretics has not yet passed by, that day by day, men use to

cook in boiling water other creatures which are helplessly given in the hands of

their torturers. I am horrified by the idea that such men are civilized people,

no rough barbarians, no natives. But in spite of all, they are only primitively

civilized, primitively adapted to their cultural environment. The average

European, flowing over with highbrow ideas and beautiful speeches, commits all

kinds of cruelties, smilingly, not because he is compelled to do so, but because

he wants to do so.

Not because he lacks the faculty to reflect upon and to realize all the dreadful

things they are performing. Oh no! Only because they do not want to see the

facts. Otherwise they would be troubled and worried in their pleasures.

It is quite natural what people are telling you. How could they do otherwise? I

hear them telling about experiences, about utilities, and I know that they

consider certain acts related to slaughtering as unavoidable. Perhaps they

succeeded to win you over. I guess that from your letter.

Still, considering the necessities only, one might, perhaps, agree with such

people. But is there really such a necessity? The thesis may be contested.

Perhaps there exists still some kind of necessity for such persons who have not

yet developed into full conscious personalities.

I am not preaching to them. I am writing this letter to you, to an already

awakened individual who rationally controls his impulses, who feels responsible

— internally and externally — of his acts, who knows that our supreme court

is sitting in our conscience. There is no appellate jurisdiction against it.

Is there any necessity by which a fully self-conscious man can be induced to

slaughter? In the affirmative, each individual may have the courage to do it by

his own hands. It is, evidently, a miserable kind of cowardice to pay other

people to perform the blood-stained job, from which the normal man refrains in

horror and dismay. Such servants are given some farthings for their bloody work,

and one buys from them the desired parts of the killed animal — if possible

prepared in such a way that it does not any more recall the discomfortable

circumstances, nor the animal, nor its being killed, nor the bloodshed.

I think that men will be killed and tortured as long as animals are killed and

tortured. So long there will be wars too. Because killing must be trained and

perfected on smaller objects, morally and technically.

I see no reason to feel outraged by what others are doing, neither by the great

nor by the smaller acts of violence and cruelty. But, I think, it is high time

to feel outraged by all the small and great acts of violence and cruelty which

we perform ourselves. And because it is much easier to win the smaller battles

than the big ones, I think we should try to get over first our own trends

towards smaller violence and cruelty, to avoid, or better, to overcome them once

and for all. Then the day will come when it will be easy for us to fight and to

overcome even the great cruelties.

But we are still sleeping, all of us, in habitudes and inherited attitudes. They

are like a fat, juicy sauce which helps us to swallow our own cruelties without

tasting their bitterness.

I have not the intention to point out with my finger at this and that, at

definite persons and definite situations. I think it is much more my duty to

stir up my own conscience in smaller matters, to try to understand other people

better, to get better and less selfish. Why should it be impossible then to act

accordingly with regard to more important issues?

That is the point: I want to grow up into a better world where a higher law

grants more happiness, in a new world where God's commandment reigns: You Shall

Love Each Other.

WITH LOVE AND PEACE ;

KHALID MAHMOOD QURASHI

President,

Animal Save Movement Pakistan

H # 1094/2 Hussain Agahi Multan 60000, Pakistan

Cell #00923007368557 , ph.0092614781691

(I am much grateful & Great thanks for  Edgar Kupfer-Koberwitz )