It's easy for me to understand that a person who beats and whips her children or who employs children in sweat shops or sells them into slavery would have no regard for the lives of non-humans. It's harder for me to understand that the nice people in your neighborhood who are kind to their children have no regard for the lives of non-humans.

Oh, they probably get very upset when they hear about a beaten dog, a cat who has been set on fire, or a horse that has been left to starve. But they don't seem to mind at all their own participation in relentless cruelty toward hundreds of animals.

For example, they probably eat meat. I, like many others, am opposed to the eating of other living creatures, but setting that aside for a moment, why would a "kind" person want to eat the meat of cows, pigs and chickens that have been brutally tortured and disgustingly deprived throughout their short, miserable lives? It is possible, after all, to buy the meat and the eggs of free-range animals who were not tortured and who were killed without causing them to have horrific, lingering, painful deaths.

Why would these people use cosmetics made by companies who continue to test their safety by pouring acid into the faces of cats, mice and rabbits?

Why would they wear leather if they can wear human-made shoes and belts that were not created by torturing and butchering animals?

Unless you live a vegan lifestyle, it is difficult to avoid all animal cruelty. The gelatin in your medication capsules is made with animal parts. The wine you drink was probably processed with animal parts. Few of us can completely avoid participating, but many more of us could decrease our participation, and we could demand that our products be created and processed without hurting living creatures.

Why don't we?