Slavery flourished from the 1520s until the end of the 1800s in this country. I mention these past atrocities to point out how much society has changed in, historically, a blink of the eye. I used to believe that humans are the top of the life cycle. But I came to see that the belief in humans at the center of the moral universe is exactly as valid as our one-time belief in the earth as the center of the physical universe. Over time, I have grown to see animal liberation within the context of other movements for justice.
Animal liberation is an optimistic movement.
We believe that society will look back on human arrogance and cruelty toward other animals with the same horror and disbelief we presently feel at slavery and other atrocities. There will be no justice as long as a man will stand with a knife or with a gun and destroy those who are weaker than he is. If we can convince people not to harm mice and rats and cats and dogs and pigs and chickens and turkeys, they will certainly not turn around and hurt human beings. And many great humanitarians, from Albert Schweitzer to Ellen White, from Louisa May Alcott to Albert Einstein, felt that a peaceful society is impossible as long as we are eating and otherways torturing animals. Slaves are being sold, beaten, and killed.