65 Quotes About Speciesism

In the racist, sexist United States, nonwhite racialized minorities—and women in particular—are subjected to more than their share of horrific violence, but no human being would wish to trade places with nonhuman animals in factory farms or laboratories. . . .The legal status of women and nonwhite racializedminorities has improved markedly in the past fifty years; matters have grown considerably worse for nonhuman animals.

A lack of concern about the plight of a “breeding” sow on a factory farm is also a result of normative systematic oppression – speciesism.

In Western patriarchal culture, both women and nonhuman nature have been devalued alongside their assumed opposites--men and civilization/culture.

Most consumers are unaware of the ongoing, intense suffering and billions of premature deaths that lurk behind mayonnaise and cream, cold cuts and egg sandwiches.

Women and other animals are exploited for their reproductive abilities, and both are devalued as they age and wear out – when they are no longer able to reproduce.

For most women (as for most men) links between sexism and speciesism are not readily apparent. We have been conditioned not to see exploitation. For example, men generally have no idea how patriarchy affects women—unless they go out of their way to learn. The same is true for women with regard to cows and pigs and chickens and turkeys.

Human beings are a part of the animal kingdom, not apart from it. The separation of "us" and "them" creates a false picture and is responsible for much suffering. It is part of the in-group/out-group mentality that leads to human oppression of the weak by the strong as in ethic, religious, political, and social conflicts.

Females – sows and cows and hens and women – suffer because of their sex in Western patriarchal cultures, where female bodies are exploited as sex symbols, for reproduction, for breast milk, and/or for reproductive eggs. As such, farmed animals are at the very bottom of the contemporary, Western hierarchy of beings – and this is speceisism.

No group of humans has ever been held in as low regard or exploited on anything close to the same level as non-human beings have been throughout history and still are today. No group of humans has ever been systematically bred, raised, killed, and eaten. No group of humans has ever been born and raised in order for people to make basketballs, wallets, or boots out of their skin. No, there is no comparison. No group of humans has ever truly been “treated like animals”.