tim gier

If you accept that you have a moral obligation to animals, and that obligation requires you to treat them as persons and not things, does that obligation also require you to try to convince others to also stop using animals?

My first thought is that it does. It seems only right, after all, that if animals deserve to be left alone then you should help them get their just deserts. The longer I think about it though, the less that the idea makes sense.

Part of the problem is one of words. For example, when tragedy struck Haiti earlier this year, I’m sure that a great number of people said to themselves “I should donate to the relief effort.” In saying that, people were expressing a preference, or a feeling about what they thought would be a good action. They were not expressing a command to themselves, or acknowledging an obligation they had to actually donate. Each of them recognized that while it might be good to donate, they were not obligated to do so. No-one would compel them to and they would suffer no repercussions if they chose not to. So the words we choose create the impression of obligation where obligation itself does not exist. Just saying that we “should” do something doesn’t mean that we’re obligated to do it.

So, by that reasoning at least, while it would perhaps be a good thing if you were try to convince others not to treat animals as property, you are not obligated to.

Is there another reason that would obligate you to try to convince others to stop using animals?

Perhaps it is the case that since human beings have created the problem relative to the misuse of animals, we are all obligated to work to solve the problem.

I don’t think this is true either. You did not personally create the systems that misuse animals. If you are currently abstaining from all uses of animals, then you are not now contributing to the continued misuse of animals. You cannot be required to ameliorate the harms that are caused by others, when you have had no part in their perpetuation. Otherwise, for example, it could just as easily be said that since you had a home mortgage once that benefited you greatly, and even though you no longer have any mortgage at all, because you are part of a system that still uses mortgages, you are obligated to personally assist any current mortgage holders who are in crisis. That makes no sense.

So, again, while maybe it would be a good thing that you take it upon yourself to work for the cause of animal rights, you are not obligated to.

Another source of confusion with regard to our obligations to others is the result of our political system. For example, you might think that we have an obligation to provide at least basic health care to every person in the country. Do you mean that you personally accept an obligation to provide such care? No. What you actually mean is that you think we should all, collectively and through the mechanisms of government, provide such care. As members of a democracy, we agree to be bound by the decisions reached in our political process. There is a difference between being a voluntary part of a system and being obligated by moral imperative.

Finally, since the basis for you accepting your obligations toward animals is that they should not be treated as just a means to an end, then you have a right to the same consideration for yourself. In other words, even though the end result of the cessation of the use of animals as things is a noble one, you cannot be used by others as merely a way to achieve that end. You get to decide what you will do, no one gets to decide that for you. While it might be a good thing for you to try to convince others to accept their own obligations towards animals, you are not obligated to do so.

So why is any of this important?

It is important because when one person has made a commitment to veganism, they have done all that is required of them. Vegans are not obligated to change the minds of other people, whether those people are perfect strangers or significant others. Vegans are not required to take part in campaigns, or put bumper stickers on their cars, or proselytize their views in every possible forum. Maybe it would be a better world if they did, but they are not obligated to.

The process of educating others about veganism, and the questions about whether to do it, when to do it, and how to do it, are personal matters beyond the reach of the obligations that each of us have to other sentient beings.

Our obligation to animals is to stop using them, to stop treating them as things. As each of us does that, our individual obligation has been met. Accept that obligation, and your work is done.