Man has no legitimate right to rule over animals, any more than a politician/king/queen has a legitimate right to rule over men. That is a bold, but true statement.
If politicians and parasitical members of Congress and Parliament have no special rights granting them with authority to forcibly rule over men, how then, can men claim to have the right to forcibly rule over animals? Meditate on that question. What actually gives you the right to impose your will on animals? Have they caused you harm, suffering or loss, or tried to violate your natural rights in any way?
Human-Animal authority -- the belief that it is man's natural right to rule and dominate animals -- is just as delusional, just as illogical, and just as evil as the belief in human authority (the belief that certain men have the right to rule and dominate other men).
This fiercely contested topic strikes at the root of anarchism and libertarianism, and can be disposed of decisively.
Who owns the animals?
Are animals not independent, sovereign beings with their own thoughts, emotions, desires, and actions? Is your dog, cat, or pig not a unique individual with the capacity for self-expression and self-determination? If man were to perish from the earth in some cataclysmic event, who, then, would claim ownership of the animals?
Animals, like us, are born as free, sovereign, independent beings and should live in a state of freedom in accordance with Natural Law. Man has hallucinated human-animal authority into existence because he perceives himself as superior to all other beings, just as he has hallucinated human authority into existence because he perceives some men as superior to others (prime ministers, presidents, kings, queens, emperors).
All perceived forms of superiority, though, including man's perceived superiority over animals, is hallucinatory. It doesn't actually exist. It is hallucinatory, precisely because all sentient beings OWN THEMSELVES. The animals' non-understanding of self-ownership does not grant us with the right to deny their sovereignty, any more than it would if a human being was incapable of understanding self-ownership due to disability or illness.
Our intellectual faculties of reason, logic, and problem-solving do not make us superior, and certainly, do not grant us with more rights than those who do not possess such traits. A wheelchair-bound, disabled human is born with the same natural rights as any other human, just as an animal with claws, fur, or gills is born with the same natural rights as every other sentient being.
We ALL own ourselves, and that includes our non-human brothers and sisters. Whether or not they are capable of intellectualizing that point is entirely irrelevant.
The only logical conclusion, then, if we wish to live in a true state of freedom, is to adopt a vegan lifestyle. Veganism dispells the myth of human-animal authority the same way anarchism crushes the superstition of human authority. Veganism is to animal enslavement what anarchism is to human enslavement. By simply choosing to eat plants instead of animal products, you are living in alignment with the universal principles of self-ownership and sovereignty. You are exercising right action over wrong action. You are choosing freedom, peace, and compassion over enslavement, torture, and murder.
This is part four of an ongoing series. I have detailed the horrors of animal agriculture and human-animal authority in previous chapters. If you would like to check them out and further your understanding of veganism, please see the links below: