#animals

The path of the norm is the path of least resistance; it is the route we take when we're on auto-pilot and don't even realize we're following a course of action that we haven't consciously chosen. Most people who eat meat have no idea that they're behaving in accordance with the tenets of a system that has defined many of their values, preferences, and behaviors. What they call 'free choice' is, in fact, the result of a narrowly obstructed set of options that have been chosen for them. They don't realize, for instance, that they have been taught to value human life so far above certain forms of nonhuman life that it seems appropriate for their taste preferences to supersede other species' preference for survival. ↗

— Melanie Joy

#carnism #meat #norms #veganism #life

The dog’s agenda is simple, fathomable, overt: I want. “I want to go out, come in, eat something, lie here, play with that, kiss you. There are no ulterior motives with a dog, no mind games, no second-guessing, no complicated negotiations or bargains, and no guilt trips or grudges if a request is denied. ↗

— Caroline Knapp

#animals #dogs #simple #motivational

Animals shouldn’t be hunted and nature shouldn’t be disturbed, even destroyed, to benefit the whims of mankind ↗

— Charles Manson

#benefit #charles-manson #destroyed #humans #hunted

A few alligators are naturally of the vicious type and inclined to resent it when you prod them with a stick. You can find out which ones these are by prodding them. ↗

— Will Cuppy

#humor #reptiles #nature

The animal should not be measured by man. In a world older than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the sense we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. ↗

— Henry Beston

#nature #nature

Spiders don't chew. They send a special liquid into their prey. The prey's insides turn to mush. Then the spider sucks up its tasty lunch! ↗

— Julie Murphy

#arachnids #children-s-books #nature #spider #nature

The cost to reconnect animals to live in natural settings without human support is a debt that many animals in transition must honor with their lives. ↗

— Young Tim

#farm-life #farming #nature

We are beasts, you know, beasts risen from the savannas and jungles and forests. We have come down from the trees and up out of the water, but you can never, ever fully remove the feral nature from our psyches. ↗

— Yasmine Galenorn

#consciousness #human-nature #interconnection #nature

Where do we record the passing of wildlife? Who mourns the silent deaths of the small? ↗

— O.R. Melling

#environment #sad #death

You can judge a man's true character by the way he treats his fellow animals. ↗

— Paul McCartney

#beatles #character #man #vegetarianism #true