Animal Guardianship: Speech for National
Homeless Animals Day
We are in the midst of rapidly changing conceptions
about animals that endows them with basic rights and intrinsic
value, no longer defining them as mere resources or commodities.
This is an evolutionary advance of the first order in the history
of the human mind and a significant stage in the development of
ethics and broadening of the moral community.
But old conceptions still tether our minds and
morals to a dark dungeon of primitive thinking; current laws and
language relating to animals date back to ancient Rome when animals,
women, and children were slaves. In time, the human beings were
formally freed, but animals remain prisoners; within the law,
they are still defined as property or things, and human beings
are positioned as their owner, masters, or Gods without accountability.
If an animal has an economic or “scientific” function,
there is nothing human beings cannot legally do to it.
The language we use to map the world is extremely
important, it shapes and constrains our thinking; if we define
the natural world as a machine, we will treat it as an inert assemblage
of parts alien to our being. Similarly, if we define animals as
property, we tend to regard them as lifeless things, mere commodities,
or disposable objects. Beholden to such concepts, people tie animals
to chains, they exploit them as food, medical, or entertainment
resources; or they euthanize them for the capital crime of scratching
their furniture.
But animals are not inert objects or dumb beasts,
they are subjects of a life who share basic things in common with
us: sentience, emotions, a richly articulated social world, and
creative intelligence. As such they warrant rights, they deserve
our respect, and we act wrongly when we exploit them in any way.
Within a ferment of change, a quiet revolution
is unfolding across the country; animal advocates are changing
the language in their city codes, replacing the term “owner”
of an animal with “guardian” of an animal. If you
apply for a cat or dog license in Los Angeles or in the state
of Rhode Island for instance, you now become their guardian, not
their owner.
If animals are not our property, we are not their
owners. One owns non-living objects, not living subjects. The
term “owner” creates a gulf where there should be
a bond; it divides a biological community that is one; and it
implies power over rather than responsibility for. Guardianship,
to the contrary, implies an active, lifelong commitment to the
well being of the animals within an expanded moral field.
Guardian responsibilities to animals are not
simply to not harm them, but to positively do them good -- to
come to their aid and rescue, to liberate them from every form
of neglect or abuse, to open every cage. The cats and dogs on
death row; the birds, pigs, and cattle in factory farms and slaughterhouses;
the whales and dolphins in the ocean; and the bears and the wolves
in the forest all depend on us.
The animals are crying out for help that only
we can give; they look at us with piercing eyes that cannot be
denied; our relationship with them is one of sacred trust and
it must never be broken.
We come together in kinship and solidarity with
the nonhuman animals who are part of our human community; their
similarities with us are far more morally important and relevant
than their differences; we are one life family in an evolutionary
continuum.
In the U.S., millions of homeless animals are
euthanized every year; in our own community, El Paso, Texas, 22,000
animals were put down last year.22,000 precious lives. That's:
22,000 stabs in our hearts
22,000 tears shed
22,000 blows to the understanding
22,000 times we have failed the animals
22,000 reasons why we are here tonight
22,000 vows we must take to stop this needless
suffering and killing
I say to the animals who are our friends, companions,
loved ones, family members, and co-participants in the adventure
of life: We hear your cries, and we in turn cry out -- we ask
everyone in our community to help you, to make your plight a top
priority instead of a last priority, to understand how our fate
is tied to yours, and for each and every citizen to become guardians
of this beautiful earth and all of its magnificent life forms.
August 17, 2002
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