Don’t Kill the Easter Bunny
April 14th, 2006 | Posted in Responsibility, Society
I’m usually one of the first in line to discount religion and the holidays that go with it. But, with Passover / Easter all up in this piece, I thought it was interesting to see this quote from then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in an article on PETA’s website.
When he was asked about the rights of animals in a 2002 interview, he said, “That is a very serious question. At any rate, we can see that they are given into our care, that we cannot just do whatever we want with them. Animals, too, are God’s creatures . . . Certainly, a sort of industrial use of creatures, so that geese are fed in such a way as to produce as large a liver as possible, or hens live so packed together that they become just caricatures of birds, this degrading of living creatures to a commodity seems to me in fact to contradict the relationship of mutuality that comes across in the Bible.”
I suppose I’m being a bit opportunistic in my argument. Usually my criticism of religion is that there are equally strong arguments for living a good life rooted in secular humanism . . . and that with humanism there is no reliance on ghosts, and therefore no place to lay responsibility save yourself. But, since people tend to have a little something called “faith” that fuzzies their minds and boggles mine, appealing to what peaks their interest is just good marketing technique.
If you’re going to eat meat, at least have the dignity to do it responsibly. Buy organic, non-factory farmed carcasses. Have a conscious.
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