Speciesism.

Spell-check does not recognize the title of this piece, speciesism. In fact I thought I had invented it. But alas when I turned to my favorite righter of wrongs and oracle of truths, Wikipedia I discovered that I was not so original a thinker as I might have dreamt. In fact the origin is attributed; by the aforementioned sage, to a British psychologist named Richard Ryder who in 1973 coined the word to mean: the assigning of different values or rights to beings on the basis of their species membership. How on earth you may ask did I come to have delusions of original thought? It happened as so many of my musings do while I was out for a walk. There must be a physical pathway from the feet to the brain; or more to the point, my feet to my brain. I seem to have many reflections or musings whist I am walking. Perhaps the blood flows better to the brain. My wife might argue that my brain is starved of oxygen but nonetheless I get some great ideas while walking. I once walked, albeit on a fine July day the very route that Pierre Trudeau chose for his now infamous walk in the snow. There was a man who knew the effects of a good walk on the cogitative facilities. If it was good enough for Pierre it is good enough for me.
So what occurred to me while I was walking was the old expression that a day was “Fit for neither man nor beast.”In fact the day was rather cold and wet and unseasonal. It may not really have been unseasonal but it was at least a preview of the coming season. Although here in the arctic it is already fall. I thought about that expression “Fit for neither man nor beast.” And it dawned on me that man is a beast. Not in the pejorative sense of the word beast but in the flora and fauna sense of the word. Man is an animal. What makes us better than any other beast? Why would weather that was fit for a beast not be fit for us? It is a small indicator of the way we humans think. In gambling they call it a “tell”. It is a Freudian slip. That old Sigmund, do you suppose he really did wear a slip? Might explain a lot. Anyways; we do have a sense that we are better than the other animals. We are speciesists. Not easy to say and not easy to admit either. Just as racism is wrong, so folks is this one. I remember once I waded in on the issue of drift-net fishing on CBC Radio’s As It Happens. I called them in answer to another caller’s remarks about fish destroyed by these nets “Not being on the endangered species list anyways.” A foolish and destructive attitude I felt and I let my feelings be known. “My regard for the protection of another species,” I said testily “is not restricted to their position on some arbitrary scale of their relative order in the chain of animal extinction.” Or irate words to that effect. My blood is warming up just thinking about it and that was probably ten years ago.
The point is equally valid today. Other species are not ours to dispose of as we please. We have a place in the food chain, but we are not at moral liberty to destroy the whole chain. We need not all become vegetarians, but I respect those who do. I understand their feelings and I respect their commitment. If it weren’t for bacon I might be right there with them. Ahhhhh, BACON! Still we think that opposable thumbs and bipedal locomotion makes us better than the next guy. Even if the next guy is my neighbors German shepherd cross who eats my garbage I am not better than him. If we had more respect for the other creatures we share this planet with then we would be better custodians of it. I have heard the argument many times; what is it that separates man from other animals? All the usual answers too; bipedal locomotion, tools, fire, opposable thumbs etc. You know what I think separates us from other animals? Not that we are the only species that could make all life on this planet extinct but that we are the only species that would make all life on this planet extinct! End of rant! (At least until my next walk)