O P I N I O N
THE SOAPBOX
Stand up. Speak up. It’s your turn.
Animals, My Brethren
written by Edgar Kupfer-Koberwitz, Holocaust Survivor
(Submitted for publication by Linda Dionne)
I feel happy, nobody persecutes me; why should I persecute other beings or cause them to be persecuted?
I feel happy, I am no prisoner, I am free; why should I cause other creatures to be made prisoners and thrown into jail?
I feel happy, nobody harms me; why should I harm other creatures or have them harmed?
I feel happy, nobody wounds me; nobody kills me; why should I wound or kill other creatures or cause them to be wounded or killed for my pleasure and convenience?
These creatures are smaller and more helpless than I am, but can you imagine a reasonable man of noble feelings who would like to base on such a difference a claim or right to abuse the weakness and the smallness of others? Don’t you think that it is just the bigger, the stronger, the superior’s duty to protect the weaker creatures instead of persecuting them, instead of killing them?
“Noblesse oblige” – I want to act in a noble way.
For more information: