We share an estimated 98.7% of the DNA with our brethren, the chimps and bonobos.  These highly intelligent, sensitive social animals are our closest cousins in the tree of life.  But what a difference that 1.3% makes in respect and viability.  So many chimps end up as inappropriate pets, in the entertainment industry, or in the medical labs. If they are lucky, they might have a few years in a sanctuary, but that is still a confined life and not the one they were designed to live.  Even those who live in the wild have dismal odds of surviving for long without capture or murder. They face diminishing habitat, callous disrespect, and an uncertain future. Because of our choices as humans, so do we.

The Animals Are More Like Us Than We Knew

Declining numbers and habitat are both taking their toll. What is it about that 1.3% of DNA that allows humans the hubris of thinking we are so divine? It is certainly not our capacity for compassion or sensitivity – no sensitive, compassionate creature could wreak the havoc we wreak on one another and on the animals each and every day. Genocide, war, deforestation, animal agriculture, racism, sexism, are all part of this legacy of uniformity. It is deadly.

We are also learning that other species are much more complex than we had thought.  Fish have been proven to have sensitivity and the capacity for sentience and compassion.  A recent video of a dog rescuing another dog from the busy freeway, after it was struck by a car, rather proves the point (see link below). If indeed we humans are going to claim to be the top of the animal kingdom or food chain, I would suggest we start behaving like it. One does not get privilege without responsibility — yet that is exactly the position many humans claim. How can we regain some of our lost moral footage? We should treat other beings the way we wish to be treated, if we claim that as the single defining principle of our civilization and spiritual beliefs; to claim that only for humans is speciesist.  Here are a few other suggestions:

1. Go vegan and educate others.
2. Fight for maintaining wild areas and animal habitats
3. Learn all you can about the current world situation for animals – watch Earthlings and The Cove, view The Future of Food and Food, Inc.
4. Avoid supporting any industry that exploits animals – and let the corporations behind them know why.
5. Increase demand for animal free products by talking to store and restaurant managers, writing letters to corporations, and supporting the vegan products they do carry. Thank them when they increase their vegan offerings.

A Growing World Vegan Population

If the world vegan population is now 3%, and we each can educate and awaken one other person each year, that 3% would be 6% next year, 12% the next, and 24% the next.  Then it is 48% and 96% – at each step along the way, our collective numbers would save lives, improve health, preserve the earth, and change attitudes towards other life forms. We could change the entire world picture in only five years.  Looking at the number of vegan blogs, on Twitter and Facebook, it would appear our numbers are already beginning to swell.

Okay vegans, start talking– We are running out of time.  Our fellow earthlings, whether they share 98.7% or very little DNA with us, are worthy of their lives and our effort on their behalf. It not only helps the animals, it improves the animals within our own skins, too.

BBC News Article, 2003

Dog Rescues Another Dog

Pain and Sensitivity in Fish