Richard Phillips

“ Because the human stomach appears to be naturally so averse to the remains of animals, that few could partake of them if they were not disguised and flavoured by culinary preparation; yet rational creatures ought to feel that the prepared substances are not the less what they truly are, and none but savages could devour raw flesh, or kill and eat on the spot the quivering warm flesh of their victims, in itself loathsome. ”

“ Because whenever the number and hostility of predatory land animals might so tend to prevent the cultivation of vegetable food, as to render it indispensible to destroy them in self-defence, there could even in that case exist no necessity to destroy the animated existences in water; and, as in most civilized countries there exist no land-animals besides those which are purposely bred for slaughter or luxury, of course all destruction in such countries must arise either from unthinking wantonness or carnivorous gluttony. ”

“ Because all such practices as hunting, shooting, fowling, fishing, badger-baiting, cock-fighting, bull-baiting, rook and gull shooting, &c. &c. deprive men of that sympathy and sense of mutual justice, which, in their intercourse with one another, ought to be as operative as law, and the energies of which are essential to the happiness of society. ”

“ Because the stomachs of locomotive beings appear to have been provided for the purpose of conveying about, with the moving animal, nutritive substances, analogous in effect to the soil in which are fixed the roots of plants; and, consequently, nothing ought to be introduced into the stomach for digestion and for absorption by the lacteals, or roots of the animal system, but the natural bases of simple nutrition, as the saccharine, the oleaginous, and the farinaceous, matter of the vegetable kingdom. ”

“ Because, being mortal himself, and holding his life on the same uncertain and precarious tenure as all other sensitive beings, he does not feel himself justified, by any alleged superiority, or inequality of condition, in destroying the vital enjoyment of any other mortal, except in the necessary defence of his own life. ”

“ Because in morals, universally, the moral sense governs practices without regard to possible inconveniences; while assumed inconveniences are not in any case admitted as justifications of practices either unjust or immoral. ”

“ Because the destruction of the mechanical organization of vegetables inflicts no sensitive suffering, nor violates any moral feeling; while vegetables serve to render his own health, strength, and spirits, better than those of most carnivorous men. ”

“ Because the desire of life is so paramount, and so affectingly cherished by all sensitive beings, that he cannot reconcile it to his feelings to destroy, or become a voluntary party in the destruction of, any living creature, however much in his power, or apparently insignificant. ”

“ Because the natural sentiments and sympathies of human beings, in regard to the killing of other animals, are generally so averse to the practice, that few men or women could devour the animals which they might be obliged themselves to kill ”

“ Because the forty-seven millions of acres in England and Wales would maintain in abundance as many human inhabitants, if they lived wholly on grain, fruits, and vegetables; but they sustain only fifteen millions scantily, while animal food is made the basis of human subsistence. ”

“ Because, in the hope of emancipating himself from the sensual and selfish instincts which govern the human race, he yields to his moral and mental convictions, setting at defiance all those considerations about health and vigour which have been pressed upon him by the intellectual darkness and unfeeling assumptions of the medical and philosophical schools. ”

“ Because he observes that carnivorous men, unrestrained by reflection or sentiment, even refine on the cruel practices of the most savage animals; and apply their resources of mind and art to prolong the miseries of the victims of their appetites, skinning, roasting, and boiling, animals alive, and torturing them without reservation or remorse, if they add thereby to the variety or the delicacy of their carnivorous gluttonies. ”

“ Because, observing that carnivorous propensities among animals are accompanied by a total want of sympathetic feelings and humane sentiments, as in the hyena, the tyger, the vulture, the eagle, the crocodile, and the shark; he conceives that the practices of those carnivorous brutes afford no worthy example for the imitation or justification of rational, reflecting, and conscientious, beings. ”

“ Because he perceives in nature a gradation of existence, subordinate and successive, by which atoms form the granular and crystallized masses of inert matter, these forming vegetation, and vegetables forming animalization ”