SA leaders and their thoughts on animal rights

ANIMAL RIGHTS

ARCHBISHOP EMERITUS DESMOND TUTU Social rights activist and retired Anglican Archbishop

“I have seen first hand how injustice gets overlooked when the victims are powerless or vulnerable, when they have no one to speak up for them and no means of representing themselves to a higher authority.

Animals are in precisely that position. Unless we are mindful of their interests and speak out loudly on their behalf, abuse and cruelty go unchallenged.�

RALPH MATHEKGA Author and Leading Political Analyst

“There is a growing understanding that animals are not there for our own selfish pleasure, but are creatures in their own right and we are obligated to treat them well. We have been ignorant in the past when it comes to how we understood animals and consequently how we treated them.

Now that we have a better understanding, we have to treat them better.�

GWEN DUMO Community Health Worker

“We don’t want cruelty in the name of the poor. As poor as we are, we love our animals. The farmers sell their chickens and pigs live to poor communities like ours. I must say it takes my whole appetite for meat away when I see the way they suffer. It is an insult to assume that because we are poor we have no heart.”

RONALD SWARTZ Former head of the Western Cape Education Department

“How we treat animals and how we treat each other are two stems that grow from the same root. If there are thorns of neglect, contempt or cruelty on one, we can be sure to find them on the other.�

PROFESSOR DAVID BENATAR Department of Philosophy, University of Cape Town

“Although the overwhelming majority of humanity live in deplorable conditions and human rights violations are rampant in much of the world, it would be a mistake to say that moral recognition ought not to be extended to animals until we have alleviated human suffering. One set of evils cannot justify the perpetuation of another set. We must desist from injustice on all fronts.�

PROFESSOR RAJ MESTHRIE Leading socio-linguist at the University of Cape Town

“The bias against animals inherent in our language, reminds me of the struggle that black people, women and homosexuals have had to face in the elimination of the derogatory terminology which is an essential part of discrimination. But linguistic disinfection in itself won’t alleviate the plight of animals unless it is accompanied by a change of heart and behaviour.”

BISHOP GEOFF DAVIES Founder and executive director of the South African Faith Communities’

Environment Institute. “Some people call it ‘loss of biodiversity. I call it ‘extinction of creation’.

We have to stop treating the rest of creation as ‘other’.”

VIVIENNE RUTGERS Teacher for over 35 years and humane education specialist

“If we are to fight violence effectively and uplift our communities for a sustainable future, we are going to have to reach into the hearts of learners and develop those vital core qualities of empathy, compassion and respect.�

ZAKES MDA Multi-award winning novelist, poet and playwright.

“I am a gourmet cook and have taught some of the members of my family to do wonders with bean curd, gluten, tempeh and other wonderfully rich protein sources. Although our original reasons for vegetarianism many years ago were not health-related but ethical rather, we have derived plenty of health benefits from our eating habits.�

BISHOP ZIPHOZIHLE SIWA Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa

“The over consumption of animal-derived products – meat, eggs, milk and so on – is part of a culture of consumerism and places an enormous burden on human health, as well as on the lives of animals which are crammed into factory farms in order to supply our demands, especially for cheap meat.

PROFESSOR FARID ESACK Eminent Moslem Theologian

Despite the enormity of this leap of imagination, justice for animals is still a struggle that must be undertaken.

It is important to fight for what is ours, but integrity demands that we also give up what is not ours. We must realise that it is for our own sake – for the development of the higher self – that we accord others, including animals, respect and dignity.

CREDO MUTWA Traditional healer and author

“One hears the strange belief that man is superior to all other living things on Earth. The people of old Africa did not regard themselves as superior to the animals, the trees, and the fishes and the birds. They were taught to look upon animals with reverence, love and respect.�

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