Animals

Milan Kundera is credited with the quote, "Mankind's true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it. "

This, like most things, is one side of the story.  Given the aggregate of the human species from the first worship and awe of the animal-gods of the prehistoric world to the family picking up a dog at the pound, I wonder if the tenderness that shepherds might feel for their flock to the 165 million dog and cat pamperers in America today balances the fundamental debacle in an way.

Every bit of compassion stems from the human heart informed by some deep biological need to succor.  And the general slaughter of our feedstock through economic need (not real need, but economic) and prey of our hunters is a natural outcropping of the human condition, is simply neutral.  There is no universal mandate that we provide one iota of love to the animals we eat or kill for our protection, and yet even so, we sometimes do.  And though the small proportion of intentional torture and mistreatment (dog fighting, domestic violence, etc.) is reprehensible and indefensible, that is not an acceptable practice and is shunned and punished by society.

We've not been good at preserving nature in general, and globally, that could be considered a failure and in that way, we've been careless for a long time (since we've had enough of an impact on the earth the effect the mass extinction of species and the awareness of our capacity to do so).  The tide is turning in most developed countries where conservation can often debar the expansion of our human footprint, and many organizations work to preserve what we have.  But in that regard, we have been slow and resistant to learning.

That more people would agree with (and live by) the respect we want to show animals espoused by Kundera is evidence against the contention that we've failed as a race.

When you look deeper, life is precious.  We've allowed billions of animals to exist that otherwise would not have seen the light of day.  We've let cows suckle at their mother's teats and chickens to lay eggs, even if the conditions aren't subjectively ideal.  We've bred chickens who excel at laying eggs and raised them to do so. Like the slums of Calcutta, is the hard life of its human inhabitants an abomination that should not exist and a debacle?  I agree that the acute disparity between the rich and the destitute is sad, I don't relegate the existence of the destitute to failure.

All in all, I have to disagree.  Because we could do better is not enough to condemn the practice of raising animals and killing them for food to the status of a debacle.