On Wednesday Night, Aug 26^th , we will discuss “Speciesism”. Speciesism is a term made popular by Australian Philosopher and Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University Peter Singer. He kicked off the modern Animal Rights Movement in 1975 when he published a book called Animal Liberation.

Singer defines Speciesism in his book as follows: “Racists violate the principle of equality by giving greater weight to the interests of members of their own race when there is a clash between their interests and the interests of those of another race. Sexists violate the principle of equality by favouring the interests of their own sex. Similarly, speciesists allow the interests of their own species to override the greater interests of members of other species.”  He then goes on to say “it can no longer be maintained by anyone but a religious fanatic that man is the special darling of the universe, or that animals were created to provide us with food, or that we have divine authority over them and divine permission to kill them.”

Most of us have not attended Princeton – yet Dr. Singer’s influence has been great – for here we are – 40 years later – with Cecil, the Lion, who was killed in a trophy hunt gone bad and it is being handled as a murder. It was reported in the Washington Post that PETA President Ingrid Newkirk issued the following statement, “If, as has been reported, this dentist and his guides lured Cecil out of the park with food so as to shoot him on private property, because shooting him in the park would have been illegal, he needs to be extradited, charged, and, preferably, hanged.”

Apparently many people in this nation and around the world agree with PETA. The outpouring of sympathy for Cecil the Lion has been huge. If you Google “Cecil the Lion”, you will get over 57 million results.

Meanwhile, someone sent me an article from conservative talk show host  Dennis Prager who had a different perspective from Zimbabwe where Cecil was killed. “It is instructive that Zimbabweans are dumbfounded at the hysteria over a lion’s death. Their country is one of the poorest on Earth. And its brutal, psychopathic ruler, Robert Mugabe, has had innumerable Zimbabweans tortured to death. Now the people of Zimbabwe are hearing the West lament a death in their country – of a lion.”

The Question for the Evening:

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