From the Explore North blog: "No one can [criticize dogsledders] unless they stop drinking milk and eating eggs. Until then they are too stupid for words."

There are degrees in everything in life; even the law recognizes that when it jails murderers but tickets speeders. People who would not raise a hand to hurt an animal, but who still eat meat or eggs or drink milk, are not morally stupid; their understanding that it is wrong to hurt defenceless animals precludes that; they have just not yet made the whole journey from human cannibalism to extending the rules of moral behaviour to all beings. People who harm defenceless animals have not even started the journey from savagery to civility. Part of our society is still in the cave stage of human existence - the part that loves guns, and winning races, and shooting defenceless beings.

People who would not eat a dog or cat or a horse, but who still eat cows, chickens, calves, pigs, and lambs, simply have not taken the next step. But more and more people are, and the tide is turning against animal users, abusers, and eaters; and as King Canute proved, you cannot turn the tide.

"Can I assume that you think that pets should not be allowed? Pets are, after all, “made for humans” to use for comfort or some other purpose."

Yes it is wrong to own any other being, even for companionship. There are many happy pets, far happier than they ever could have been living natural lives; but happy slaves are still slaves, and happy slaves and kind slave-owners were used to justify human slavery, just as "good" pet owners are used to justify owning animals. One day, it is to be hoped, everyone will understand that animals do not exist for humans, not for any reason. Most societies understand that owning humans is unjustifiable and so have made it illegal. One day, morally superior societies will extend that to animals.

Another argument against abolition of human slavery was economic, just as commercial cruelty to animals is justified on economic grounds today. Although the English led the fight for abolition of slavery, some English cottonmill owners were against abolition because paid labour would drive up the cost of their raw material. They thought they would be ruined and they delayed abolition for some time, even supporting the American South in the American civil war. But the abolition of slavery in the Americas did not ruin the weaving industry in England, and in fact, the abolition of black slavery assisted in changing attitudes to the rights of workers in England.

People who respect all lives, who try to do no harm, who try to prevent harm, are morally superior. Most of them don't feel so, any more than I do. I was given so many good examples, beginning in my childhood, that there is nothing to feel smug about. No one in my family bred animals, chained or beat a dog, raced a horse, kept an animal in a cage, used an animal in entertainment, experimented on animals, made money from the use of animals, or did anything selfish or cruel to an animal, except eat them -- oh, and were paying customers of the aquarium business in Vancouver; but that was just a lesson to me in cruelty as I silently promised all the caged creatures to come back that night and save them all. Most animals abusers and users (the root word of abuse) have had different role models and childhoods than I had. So there is no credit to me and I am not a superior being. But on the scale of morality, I am supported in my belief that I score higher than mushers, by people far more intelligent than I am.

If I were you I would, of course, not take my word for that; but philosophers and religious mystics from the beginning of the written word to today, say that abuse of the weaker is morally indefensible. Check with Christ or Buddha, or whoever you take for your moral guide (if you take anyone, or only need your own reason and common sense).

"The time will come when men such as I
will look upon the murder of animals
as they now look upon the murder of men."
LEONARDO DA VINCI (1425-1519)
Italian sculptor, artist and inventor

"The obligations of law and equity reach only to mankind; but kindness and beneficence should be extended to the creatures of every species,
and these will flow from the breast of a true man,
as streams that issue from the living fountain."
PLUTARCH (46-120 AD.)
Greek philosopher and moralist

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
GHANDI (1869 - 1948)
Major political and spiritual leader of India