Why Compassion is Essential for Human Survival

In this trying spring our compassion for one another, taking care of, supporting, helping and loving each other is flourishing. Love and endearment for our animal companions are front and center as well

Compassion for animals, no less important than caring for one another, is one of the essential traits that defines and anchors our humanity. Our survival as a species depends on empathy for animals as well.

Compassion must extend to farm animals. Like your dog, pigs wag their tails when they are happy and they learn to respond to their own names. Their intelligence and social skills are no less developed than your dog or cat — although your cat might take issue with that — and their emotions are fundamentally not much different than yours. They feel happiness, excitement, contentment, as well as fear, loneliness, misery and despair. Cows form friendships, help each other, and enjoy play. Chickens have distinct personalities, complex communication, and a self-awareness akin to primates.

If we truly want to live a compassionate life – not just in words but in real-life action – then we should try our best to never unnecessarily harm other living beings.
Great teachers from many spiritual traditions have taught this virtue. In fact, one of Jesus’ primary teachings was, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
He taught compassion—the ability to feel others’ pain in a sympathetic way. Lord Buddha also underlined the importance of living a compassionate life.
He said, “In separateness lies the world’s great misery, in compassion lies the world’s true strength.” He also said, “All beings tremble before violence. All fear death, all love life.
See yourself in others. Then whom can you hurt? What harm can you do?”

Every year, billions of innocent animals are subjected to horrifying living conditions followed by an unimaginably cruel death, simply because eating meat is the norm in our society.
When we become aware of the extreme pain and suffering caused to these innocent creatures, hopefully we will have the insight to ask ourselves,
“Why shouldn’t we extend our compassion to all living beings, including the innocent animals?”

We may also consider another question: What makes it wrong to eat a pet that has a unique and lovable personality, but okay to slaughter other animals and put them on the dinner table?

The reality is that it’s not just the animals raised for food who suffer. Eating meat also brings intense suffering to individuals and society in the form of greatly increased levels of disease and environmental devastation.

How can you experience peace if you don’t treat your body right? There’s no need to eat animals to live a strong and healthy life.
Healthy vegetarian diets support a lifetime of good health and provide protection against numerous diseases, including our country’s three biggest killers: heart disease, cancer, and stroke.

The American Dietetic Association states that vegetarians have “lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease; … lower blood cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer” and that vegetarians are less likely than meat-eaters to be obese.

1. Well-planned vegetarian diets provide us with all the nutrients that we need, minus all the saturated fat, cholesterol, and contaminants found in animal flesh and eggs.
2. Research has shown that vegetarians are 50 percent less likely to develop heart disease,
3. They have 40 percent of the cancer rate of meat-eaters.
4.  Plus, meat-eaters are nine times more likely to be obese than are vegans.