I’m writing to you from two centuries in your future. I know you strive to be a thoughtful, compassionate person who lives a good and principled life according to the standards of your time. But I want to ask you to pause and examine a practice that feels entirely normal and routine to you: the industrial exploitation and consumption of animals.
In your era, raising animals for food and labor is treated simply as a necessity of life, a natural order, or a harmless tradition. Because almost everyone around you participates without a second thought, it is easy to assume there is no moral issue at stake. But consider what we now know: animals possess complex nervous systems, clear capacities for joy, fear, and social bonding, and a deep ability to feel physical and emotional pain.
When we confine them to tiny spaces, separate mothers from their young, and end their lives prematurely for our convenience or diet, we are inflicting immense suffering on sentient beings who have no voice to protest.
If you agree that causing unnecessary suffering is wrong, then the circle of who deserves our compassion cannot stop at human beings. It must expand to include all creatures who can feel pain and desire to live.
I ask you to look past what is culturally convenient and begin questioning these practices. What small choices can you make today to reduce the harm caused to the animals around you?
Dear Friend,
I’m writing to you from two centuries in your future. I know you strive to be a thoughtful, compassionate person who lives a good and principled life according to the standards of your time. But I want to ask you to pause and examine a practice that feels entirely normal and routine to you: the industrial exploitation and consumption of animals.
In your era, raising animals for food and labor is treated simply as a necessity of life, a natural order, or a harmless tradition. Because almost everyone around you participates without a second thought, it is easy to assume there is no moral issue at stake. But consider what we now know: animals possess complex nervous systems, clear capacities for joy, fear, and social bonding, and a deep ability to feel physical and emotional pain.
When we confine them to tiny spaces, separate mothers from their young, and end their lives prematurely for our convenience or diet, we are inflicting immense suffering on sentient beings who have no voice to protest.
If you agree that causing unnecessary suffering is wrong, then the circle of who deserves our compassion cannot stop at human beings. It must expand to include all creatures who can feel pain and desire to live.
I ask you to look past what is culturally convenient and begin questioning these practices. What small choices can you make today to reduce the harm caused to the animals around you?
With hope and respect,
A friend from the future