An immaculately dressed waiter hurries through the restaurant at a brisk pace, urgent to stick to a timing schedule refined to the last second. Finally he arrives at your table and in dramatic and declarative style unveils the restaurant’s ‘special Sunday dish’ which you ordered in high anticipation after reading reviews raving about it online. The mystery dish is set before you and after thanking the waiter you take a bite. The flesh is succulent, the dripping brown gravy interweaves delicately cut meat and the exquisite combination makes your mouth water in delight. Impressed by the mystery special you call the waiter over, and ask what the fine dish has in it. “Free range and locally sourced golden Alsatian” he replies with a practiced yet warm smile before turning and tending to the requests of your neighbouring table.

Be honest with yourself, what would your reaction be if you were to find your meal was made from the flesh and blood of a dog? If like most normal people you would feel a growing rise of sickness and wish to vomit the meal you just shoved down your gullet, then well done you have passed the first test, you are a confirmed typically sane and normal human being.

However, if I was to change the story line and make the dish one of pork chops, beef stew or lamb and chicken pie, what would the common reaction be? I will tell you, one of indifference, complacency and probably ridicule of why you are even being told this hypothetical scenario in the first place, after all it sounds just like a normal Sunday roast or pub lunch, what’s all the fuss about?

This people is culture, upbringing and most specifically speciesism and unfortunately for us, there is a lot to fuss about.

Prior to 1970 the word speciesism had never been heard of yet alone included in academic literature. Philosopher Richard Ryder coined the term in the early 70’s were it was picked up on and began to gain traction when Peter Singer a renowned moral and animal rights philosopher began to use it in academic work and discussion. By the word ending in ‘ism’ it groups it with other practices such as racism and sexism which have also been a by-product of the disconnectedness and divisions we have built between ourselves and other beings.

The word essentially conveys the current practice of how humans treat animals differently according to their species. According to our cultural upbringing and the story we have had spun upon us about which animals are pets and which are food has created a widespread global practice of treating certain species of animals with immense compassion, reverence and care and other species with apathy, cruelty and pain. Simply put if we like the way it tastes and our culture says it is ok to eat it or use it in a circus or a zoo most of us comply.

Unfortunately, speciesism is confused with the concept that all biological species such as a cow, turnip and a human should be treated equally and therefore be entitled to the same rights and same treatment. What it actually is, is simply respecting the interests of each species and the individual’s who make up that species who due to their differing physiology have a spectrum of differing biological interests. As humans have a central nervous system, developed emotions and a wish to live in peace we should respect those interests and act according so ie: by not harming one another or contributing to each other’s murder. Why then, when it is so clear that animals share all the same basic attributes listed for humans do we continue to violate their bodies, cause immense distress and finally slaughter them?

We (on the whole) respect the interests of our cats and dogs but pay to pillage the bodies of  cows, chickens, pigs and sheep, neglecting every single one of their interests.

Critics of anti-speciesism argue that superior human intelligence and our ability to reason in a practical and practiced way grants us the rights to use and abuse those species to which we do not attribute our superior human characteristics.

However, if the level intelligence of an individual being is used to justify our treatment of them we would watch the world descend into a widespread acts of such immoral atrocity it would be impossible to comprehend. It would create society where someone of average intelligence could justifiably abuse, neglect and inflict pain upon a baby or mentally challenged person simply due to their ‘lower intelligence’.

I think we can all agree a society where this occurred would be one not worth living in, yet we continue to live in one which slaughters and eats animals and their products because apparently they have ‘lower intelligence’ and we can do therefore do what we want. Simply put, just because we can does not mean we should.

In the pig vs dog example scientists have found that pigs display high levels of object location memory which means if they were to find a particular tasty patch of acorns in a field, if they were removed and set free again they could with ease find it again. Furthermore, they interact with video games at a more skilled level than chimps and were declared the 5th most intelligent animal (ranking higher than dogs). If intelligence and practically using reason in everyday scenarios are the criteria of how we treat other species as well as each other, what are we doing standing around munching on bacon and pork sandwiches?  If we are sticking to the declared agenda of morality we should be shoving our beloved canine friends into hollow steel trucks and sending them off to be hung up side down and cut up or gas chambered (as are a third of the pigs in the UK) to make dog meat burgers and mongrel stew.

If this seems absolutely insane to you….

That’s because it is. To make a moral world you don’t treat species and people based off of their levels of ‘rationality’ or ‘IQ’ you look at their interests. Do they want to live? Do they have the capacity to feel pain, suffering and intricately developed emotions? Do they have a wish for space to play and socialise with their family and friends?

If the answer is yes to these questions, it is simple, you leave them in peace, respect them and don’t capitalise on their inability to defend themselves. How do we do that in everyday life? By changing to a vegan diet consisting of pulses, grains, vegetables, seeds and fruits. This directly stops the flow of money going into the rearing and murder of beautiful farm animals and puts it into the growing and harvesting of healthy and nutritious plants which doesn’t involve practices such as of caging things, taking babies from their mothers and gas chambering (as 1/3 of pigs are killed in the UK). Instead you just let it grow out in the sun and when it’s done you just give it a chop and voila you have a spicy lentil vegetable curry.

This opens up the floor for a barrage of comments “Plants have feelings though” or “Are you sure carrots can’t feel pain though” and questions like “If you respect the interests of animals why don’t you show the same respect to plants?”.

First off, plants do not have a central nervous system and therefore no nerve signals which can communicate to a ‘brain’ meaning if you were to shave off the petals of a flower or skin of an aubergine they would not feel pain or feel like suffering was being inflicted upon them. They also do not display a fight or flight response when being cut, unlike animals and humans who in the face of an attacker who intends to hurt them show extremely aggravated displays of trying to escape or instead furiously fighting back the threat. Plants do not however, they simply sit there dainty as day which illustrates it is therefore not in a carrot’s interest to avoid pain or suffering because it doesn’t matter to it, all it wants to do is grow, which it duly does to when it gets to mature point and ends up on our plates. Brilliant!

However if you were to still worry about the welfare of plants, going vegan is the single greatest way to reduce plant intake. If this seems confusing let me break it down. Cows, pigs and sheep require huge amounts of crops and grains to allow for their bodies to become fattened to the point deemed satisfactory to sell by the farmer. They therefore demand an immense amount of the crops, plants and grains worldwide which means meat eaters eat their way through far more plants indirectly than a vegan does. In the journal of nutrition 2014 (an extensively peer reviewed scientific journal including human and non human nutrition) by using the average American USDA's daily average of 8 ounces of meat consumption they it was found the average American ’s meat habits contributed to 52% more plants being used than the average vegan.

It is clear from a biological, ethical and environmental standpoint philosophers such as Ryder and Singer who proposed their theory of anti-speciesism are totally and undeniably correct. Being an anti-speciesist is not thinking a goat has the right to run as a democratic candidate in government, it is just proposing that we treat each and every species existing on our beautiful and exceptional earth according to their interests. In the case of animals, not eating them or their products like dairy and egg is the right course of action by putting this moral philosophy into action.

When whittled to the bare bones of why, it seems absolutely illogical that most of us continue blindly declaring our love for one animal like our beloved cats or dogs but then walk into a supermarket and purchase the flesh of another. This is speciesism in action. When stripped of the individual subjects involved (animals) it is the exact same premise which humans have used to degrade, ostracise and abuse different groups within humanity for millennia.

Racism and sexism have been two practices undertaken by humans which have yielded devastating consequences, with the underlying premise which caused them being treating other individuals differently according to their appearance. When we take a moment to pause and ponder…. Is the way we treat that different. We pick one and give it endless adoration and then take another and cage it, deprive it of emotional stimulation and then kill it for food, and why? Because they look different.

It is the exact same story which has played out but with different actors in the roles, different villains and different victims. However, despite a feeling of desperation and insignificance in the seemingly overwhelming injustices of the world, we forget we are still writers of our story, the human story and it is up to us to decide the next chapter.