Seeing animals differently
Thomas Bonneville reviews a book that urges us to reconsider our relationship with animals
In their introduction to Living By Voices We Shall Never Hear - a collection of reflections, poems and essays - editors Pauline and Les Mitchell put the matter bluntly: for thousands of years, nonhuman animals ‘have been our unpaid, unacknowledged and, for the most part, appallingly treated slaves on whose backs, it is no exaggeration to say, our present world has been built. Perhaps it is time to consider our relationship with them.’
Quakers have, in fact, been considering these relationships for some time, the question is: how might the concern for nonhuman animals be brought from the periphery of Quakerism to, or at least towards, its centre? A question, no doubt, of hearts and minds. I’m happy to say that I met with many and varied answers within these pages; answers, along with more questions.
Living By Voices divides into three sections, the first, ‘Animal companionship’, appeals to the reader’s heart and soul. John Woolman was famously resolved to let love be the first motion in him and the opening tales of lives lived with cows, cats, dogs and chickens show just what that can mean. The second section, ‘Animal-inspired poetry’, gives further rein to that impulse of love and reverence, leading out onto imaginative refigurations of human/nonhuman relations. ‘Quaker perspectives on animals’, the last section, appeals to the reader via examples of Quaker tradition and convictions – and through much reasoned argument.
Marian Hussenbux provides an excellent primer on Quaker engagement with animal welfare from the time of Fox onwards. This concern finds its first voice of lasting eloquence in John Woolman. While many advances were made in the century following, it’s not until the 1980s that we find evidence of Friends returning to what was evident to Woolman: that love of God demands a nonviolent and nonexploitative comportment toward our fellow creatures.
What of the testimonies? Can our idea of equality refuse to acknowledge, especially in light of recent research into animal intelligence and capacity for suffering, the equality of species? Can an authentic peace testimony turn a blind eye to the slaughter of 150,000,000 daily for food? We are witnessing the emergence of a sustainability testimony, yet there is arguably no greater factor in environmental degradation than the consumption of animals and animal products.
Wilma Davidson tells of how she came to realise that such inconsistencies were incommensurate with her core values: ‘when I became a vegetarian, the reason was simple: I could not kill so I could not condone someone killing just for me to eat.’
Most of the pieces in Living By Voices strike a Quakerly note, commending the matter to the conscience of individual Friends, which is no doubt as it should be. But a book on this topic that did not provoke any outrage would fall short of the demands of justice. I’m very grateful, therefore, to Les Mitchell for including his front-line report on this war against the defenceless – showing us in no uncertain terms ‘the sheer overwhelming scope of our violence.’ It’s tough going and may prove too much for some; but, while I agree with AH Mann that people don’t react well to being proselytised, I can only add that there came a decisive moment in my life when the right person appeared, jabbed a finger in my chest and said: ‘Thou art the man!’ I’m indebted to them for it.
This book is a weave of viewpoints that brings forward no unanimous recommendation, but more than one contributor suggests that the time is right for an Advice or Query on our relations with animals. It’s hard to imagine any Friend who, on completing Living By Voices, would dismiss that proposal out of hand.
A free copy of Living By Voices We Shall Never Hear can be downloaded from: australianfriend.org/af724
