Les animaux sont l'ombre de la saga humaine (1)

Charles Danten

Tous les changements morphologiques et psychologiques que nous avons imposés aux animaux ne sont pas sans ressembler étrangement à ceux que les humains se sont eux-mêmes imposés au cours de la même période. 

Ce que nous avons fait subir aux bêtes nous l’avons fait subir aux nôtres tout au long de notre histoire. Les techniques de la domestication, c’est-à-dire l'enfermement, la privation alimentaire, la castration physique et psychologique, la sélection pour la docilité, l'inceste et la civilisation des mœurs par diverses techniques de coercition, nous les avons appliquées à nous-même.

Dans cette optique, la condition animale est une transposition de la condition humaine, une dramatisation vivante de la relation avec notre propre animalité, c'est-à-dire nos instincts. 

Toute notre histoire est celle des moyens que nous avons dû déployer pour gérer nos pulsions dans un environnement où elles sont devenues inadaptées. Ce qui est arrivé à notre espèce est le dilemme de tous les animaux sauvages qui se retrouvent en captivité. Le loup, par exemple, qui devient chien à force d’être domestiqué par les humains subit le même sort que nous avons nous-mêmes subi depuis notre sortie de la nature dans des circonstances inconnues à ce jour (1)(2)(3).

Mon livre, Un vétérinaire en colère. Sur les chemins de rédemption est en quelque sorte une métaphore ou une allégorie de la condition humaine ; il suffit de remplacer le chien par un homme et le boulet par la domestication.

Références

1. John A. Livingston (1994). The Rogue Primate. An Exploration of Human Domestication. Robert Rinehart Publishers. 

2. Peter J. Wilson (1988). The Domestication of the Human Species. Yale University Press. 

3. André G. Haudricourt (1962). Domestication des animaux, culture des plantes et traitement d’autrui. L’Homme. (2), n^o 1 : 40-50. 

Ritual slaughter in the name of Yahveh and Allah is as cruel as ritual mutilations in humans and aesthetic mutilations in animals

Charles Danten

Kosher and halal slaughtering is disrespectful not only to animals but to our culture and to all self-respecting human beings.

In modern civilized societies such as ours, animals are not slaughtered without first making them unconscious with a stun gun. Bleeding to death a conscious animal by slitting its throat, the jihadist way, is an act of great barbarity that all civilized people strongly condemn.

This despicable practice, which is banned in Switzerland since 1893 - more recently in Sweden, Denmark, Slovenia, and since January 2019, in Belgium - must stop.

Mutilations

The same can be said about circumcision in humans. These religious rituals are as barbarous and cruel as aesthetic mutilations in animals such as ear cropping in dogs and declawing in cats.

In humans, this mutilation devoid of humanity is theoretically illegal in many countries. In France, for example, Article 16-3 of the Civil Code states the following:

The integrity of the human body can be impaired only in the case of a medical necessity for a person, and exceptionally, in the therapeutic interest of others. The consent of the person concerned must be obtained beforehand except when his condition necessitates a therapeutic intervention to which he is not in a position to consent.

This mutilation, which is practiced before the victims are adults - at the age of eight days for Jews and between five and eight years for Muslims - are inflicted without the informed consent of the victims. From a legal point of view, this archaic ritual can therefore be considered as child abuse. 

Doberman with cropped ears

In animals, mutilations for aesthetic purposes are now prohibited wherever the Charter of Animal Rights is applied, as in Europe, in California, and in Quebec, Canada. Are animal rights better respected than humans? Not exactly! Religious slaughter in animals and religious circumcision in humans are practiced in all secular societies that claim to be on the cutting edge of social progress. 

Yet, in a secular society such as ours, religion does not have precedence over the law, and the law must be the same for everyone. 

Those who refuse to comply can simply leave the country.

As a matter of fact, according to traditional Islam - true Islam - if Muslims are unable to practice their religion as they should, the Koran invites them to emigrate and not to put themselves in conflict with their adoptive society as do the Muslim Brotherhood, Salafists (islamic fundamentalism) and other fake Islam's that thrive in our societies. (1)

As far as Jews are concerned, if they want to continue living in the Middle Ages, they can always move to Israel, the paradise of ritual circumcision and kosher slaughtering. 

And if Jews and Muslims refuse to leave, they can always change the founding credo of their religion. Dogmas are not etched in stone. In order to adjust to modernity, the Catholic Church for example has changed its fundamentals many times since 1965 (Vatican II). And if Catholics can do so, Jews and Muslims can certainly do so as well. 

Reference

Youssef Hindi (2016). Les mythes fondateurs du choc des civilisations. Comment l'islam est devenu l'ennemi de l'Occident. (The Founding Myths of the Clash of Civilizations. How Islam Became the Enemy of the West). Sigest. 

Ronald Goldman (1997). Circumcision, the hidden trauma: How an american cultural practice affects infants and ultimately us all. Vanguard.

www. circumcision.org