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Says Shelley: "The advantage of a reform in diet is obviously greater than that of any other. It strikes at the root of the evil. To remedy the abuses of legislation, before we regulate the propensities by which they are produced, is to suppose that by taking away the effect, the cause will cease to operate."
"A tiger can be fed upon a diet from which flesh is excluded, and have tolerable health; but he will lose the ferocious habits of his native state. A tiger's whelp fed upon vegetable food is a domesticated animal; and this is true of all carnivorous beasts." Dr Stillman.
"Not long since The Israelite had an article on the easiest method of slaughtering animals. What right, I said to myself indignantly, have they to slaughter animals at all. Who gave them the right to kill, to 'slaughter' those harmless creatures? . . . 'Thou shalt not kill' is a divine command—divine to-day, yester-day and forever. If you say this applies to man only, I would reply that I believe I can find more of useless, harmful men upon the earth than of four-footed beasts. . . . If you must kill, will kill, then hunt the human brutes." Dr. Ditson.
If all who eat flesh were obliged to do the killing, or to witness it, few there are who would not speedily become vegetarians.
"Those further advanced in civilization have become so squeamish that they employ others to do the killing, and have the flesh so cut up and seasoned with spices that they are not reminded of the crimes they are committing. When a being has arrived at that stage of civilization, it is a crime to eat flesh." The Vegetarian.
If to eat flesh be not an absolute necessity, the preliminary killing is a wholly unjustifiable barbarity.
"Did you ever go into a slaughter-house? If so, what did you find there? Killing, life-taking, bloodshed, cruelty, suffering, pain, stench, filth, cursing, anger, revenge, bleating, bellowing, groaning, disease, darkness and death. Now turn from this ghastly and horrible scene and go into the garden, and what do you find there?
