Ph.D. Marc Bekoff - The Animal Manifesto: Six Reasons for Expanding Our Compassion Footprint

New World Library 14 Pamaron Way Novato, California 94949

Copyright 2010 by Marc Bekoff

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, or other without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

Text design by Mary Ann Casler

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bekoff, Marc.
The animal manifesto : six reasons for expanding our compassion
footprint / Marc Bekoff.

p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-57731-649-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Emotions in animals. 2. Human-animal relationships. 3. Animal
behavior. I. Title. QL785.27.B448 2010 179.3 dc22 2009043833

First printing, February 2010
ISBN 978-1-57731-649-7
Printed in Canada on 100% post-consumer-waste recycled paper

New World Library is a proud member of the Green Press Initiative.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

In October 2008, when I was visiting the Moon Bear Rescue
Centre outside of Chengdu, China, I met seven dogs to whom I
dedicate this book: Henry, Matilde, Stevie, Lady Lobster,
Butch, Tremor (aka Rambo), and Richter.

I also dedicate this book to the billions of anonymous
animals who are in dire need of our support,
and to all the wonderful people worldwide who are
working hard to better the lives of animals, who dearly
need our kindness, compassion, empathy, and love.

And also to Sarah for her unwavering passion.

INTRODUCTION
Our Common Bonds of Compassion

REASON 1
All Animals Share the Earth and We Must Coexist

REASON 2
Animals Think and Feel

REASON 3
Animals Have and Deserve Compassion

REASON 4
Connection Breeds Caring, Alienation Breeds Disrespect

REASON 5
Our World Is Not Compassionate to Animals

REASON 6
Acting Compassionately Helps All Beings and Our World

THE LATE THEOLOGIAN THOMAS BERRY stressed that our relationship with Nature should be one of awe, not one of use. Individuals have inherent or intrinsic value because they exist, and this alone mandates that we coexist with them. All animals, including humans, have a right to lives of dignity and respect, without forced intrusions. We need to accept all beings as and for who they are.

Any manifesto on behalf of animals must begin with this essential proposition, from which everything else flows. All animals, all beings, deserve respectful consideration simply for the fact that they exist. Whether animals think and feel, and what they know, is irrelevant. Reverence and awe for creation should guide human actions, along with a humble acknowledgment that humans have limited knowledge about the mysteries of our own existence. However, that animals do think, feel, and know only makes what humans often do to them worse.

If we humans acted with just this simple idea foremost in mind, our coexistence with animals would look a lot different. Im constantly pleased to receive emails and the occasional letter from people who just love watching animals with the attitude of awe that Berry recommends. In July 2008, Ted Groszkiewicz of Berkeley, California, shared this story with me about his trip to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, where I studied coyotes in the mid-1970s. Ted wrote:

My wife and I have been coming here every summer for the past twenty years, and we had a singular experience this morning. We were driving to the park, traveling westward along the Big Thompson, when I noticed a line of oncoming traffic traveling very slowly. Odd at this time of the morning, I thought. And then I noticed that there was an animal in front of the lead car; first glance said, fawn.... But right away I could see that wasnt right; this animal was much more graceful. Ah, coyote! I stopped my car to watch the oncoming parade. What a happy beast, prancing in front of all those cars. Head held high this coyote wove back and forth across the lane of traffic at a slow trot. The coyote smiled and looked me straight in the eye as it came level with our car. And, still weaving back and forth across the lane like a highway patrol motorcycle cop running a traffic break, the bouncing tail receded into the east leading a procession of at least ten cars. I would have given a tidy sum to share the mind of that coyote!

Me too! Ive learned firsthand that the worlds of our fellow animals are laden with magic and wonder. Ive been extremely fortunate, having had numerous personal experiences around the world with both animals and people working on their behalf. Ive seen lions, leopards, and spotted hyenas in Kenya, helped to rescue dogs and rehabilitate moon bears in China, observed dolphins off the coast of Adelaide, Australia, been confronted by an angry baboon in the Masai Mara, collected yellow snow in Boulder and elephant poop in Northern Kenya, and been nipped in the butt by a mother coyote who thought I was getting too close to her youngsters. Ive also studied a wide range of animals over the past forty years, from domestic dogs, coyotes, wolves, and foxes to archer fish who catch prey by spitting water at them; from Adlie penguins living at Cape Crozier near the Ross Ice Shelf to Stellers jays and western evening grosbeaks living around my home.

The key to all these encounters, as Ted discovered, is slowing down or stopping in order to share the road. Coexistence is a two-way street; it requires accommodations by all parties, not all parties but one.

Further, just as we exclaim Wow when we marvel over the mysterious lives of animals, I would not be surprised if animals say Wow in their own ways as they experience the ups and downs of their daily lives and the grandeur and magic of the environs in which they live. Look at their eyes gleaming with joy when they are happy. How strange and marvelous must we sometimes appear to them?

The attitude that allows us to mistreat animals and habitually fail to consider their needs is speciesism. Speciesism is also behind our failure to consider ourselves as part of nature, as if humans were somehow separate from nature and exempt from the basic principles by which all species live and die. For example, overpopulation and overconsumption can lead to our own extinction just as they have caused the extinction of many other species that overwhelmed their environment. Our arrogance and denial of who we are big-brained mammals with enormous potential, and power, to both improve and destroy the world we live in is self-destructive in the long run. Indeed, we re failing now in so many areas that we should be ashamed of ourselves.

For instance, through a combination of habitat loss, overconsumption, overpopulation, spread of invasive species, and climate change, Earth is in the midst of its sixth great extinction of species. Researchers agree that humans are the major cause of this incredible loss of biodiversity, and they have coined the term anthropocene to highlight humanitys significant anthropogenic impact on Earths ecosystems and climate.