Holy Traditions, Hidden Cruelty: The Animal Cost of Easter
At Animal Law Focus, we think that Easter, Passover and other religious holidays are a particularly interesting time to look at our consumption of animal products. If, between one vegan easter egg and the next, you have a moment to pause and think about the celebration, you’ll soon see why this is.
On the one hand, let’s say Easter, is a time when many abstain from eating red meat (beef) and other animal products. Lent, the forty or so day period before Easter, is marked by fasting and abstinence (often from eating meat), and Easter Week also sees prohibitions on the consumption of some animal products, especially in Catholic traditions. But whilst this may appear to be a sign that the holiday serves as a moment to reflect and hold back from harming and eating other animals, Easter is also a time of great suffering for a great many, with lots of traditions centring around the eating of certain animals to mark the celebration. Moreover, in periods where the flesh of some animals is forbidden, the consumption of fish rises significantly and cruelty is replaced with cruelty, but from a different species. By digging into the ways animals are used as symbols around Easter, we find an interesting angle to look at their exploitation.
Let’s first examine practices of abstaining from animal products around Easter. Catholic countries in Latin America often see their populations abstain from eating the flesh of land animals during Easter Week or Semana Santa. This restriction is in honour of Jesus’s sacrifice of his own flesh for humanity on Good Friday, and so, in a sense, it is not being done out of concern for the animals themselves, but rather because of what they symbolise. Nevertheless, perhaps in carrying out this tradition there is some acknowledgement of the moral significance of eating animals, for how else could abstaining from meat hold such an important symbolic role? Religious scripture is full of prescriptions on what to eat, and many of these govern animal products - it is hard to imagine how these rules and extensive symbolism could have emerged without an implicit recognition of the moral standing of animals.
Even if this is so, it seems that refraining from eating the flesh of all animals is too big of an ask, and indeed fish consumption rises dramatically around Semana Santa. In Colombia, for example, it is estimated that seafood consumption rises by as much as 60%, and elsewhere in Latin America there are numerous reports of large price increases in response to higher demand. We’ve already covered some of the ethical issues inherent in fish farming, and this increase in consumption around Easter perhaps reveals the shallowness of the ethical dimension of this short period of abstinence. Moreover, dairy and eggs are also permitted for Catholics during Semana Santa, with Christians abstaining from meat but continuing to propagate other cruel industries that profit from the exploitation of animals (see, for instance, our recent article on cruel practices in the egg industry).
It is important to note that other strands of Christianity do go further. For example, Ethiopian Orthodox Christians observe Hudade (the “Great Fast”) in the 55 days before Easter, refraining from all animal products as a means to greater spirituality and overcoming the cardinal sins of greed, vanity, and pride. For the Ethiopian Church this is not unique to Easter - each year contains 180 days of mandatory fasting in which no animal products are permitted.
Universal to all of these traditions is a celebratory break of the fast to mark the end of abstinence. And universally, this centres around meat. Lamb has particularly strong associations with Easter for a couple of reasons. Lambs were traditionally sacrificed during the Jewish festival of Passover, and - tragically for millions in the present day - they have retained their status as animals fit to mark a celebration. But eating lambs at Easter still strikes us as a little paradoxical. Easter is a celebration of the triumph of life over death, and the symbolism surrounding it reflects this, with eggs, chicks, flowers, and other signs of new life central to Easter imagery. How can the slaughtering and consumption of millions of babies be an appropriate way to celebrate this?
In my opinion, the confusing, contradictory attitudes towards other animals that we see at Easter is a symptom of the widely held belief of human supremacy. Humans - explicitly or implicitly in their actions - very often believe themselves to be superior to all other animals, in some mysteriously absolute sense. This is a common justification for eating animals or for exploiting them in other ways such as through experimentation: our lives are more important than theirs, and so we are entitled to test on them and end their lives when it benefits us or they are no longer useful for our selfish purposes. But this widespread belief of human supremacy doesn’t just show up in the way we use animals' bodies, it is also present in our use of animals as symbols in our stories and cultural narratives. The lamb comes to symbolise innocence, the snake temptation, the lion courage, and the pig greed. And as these tales become more and more cemented in each of us, it becomes easier to be a human supremacist and lose sight of where our stories end and reality begins.
The causality here is complex. On the one hand, it is a prior belief in the superiority of humans that allows us to use animals - literally and symbolically. On the other hand, as we systematically exploit animals we fail to see each being as an individual with agency, and this supposed lack of individuality is then taken to strengthen a belief in humans being superior.
Let’s take an example. It is widely believed that sheep are stupid. This is demonstrably false. Not only have sheep been shown to be intelligent in a number of traditional ways, but the measure of intelligence is also deeply flawed, as it has been shaped by considering the traits that humans need to survive and thrive, and so can’t easily be extrapolated to other species. However, the myth that sheep are stupid lives on, and works hand in hand with the status of the lamb as innocent and pure to make the exploitation of these animals easier to stomach. In this way, human supremacy is both a cause and a consequence of our attitudes towards and treatment of other animals.
Our tendency towards human supremacy is even more clear in the case of fish. Fish do not look very much like us. A more distant evolutionary relative, they are often said to be harder for humans to understand and empathise with. But even if this is all true, that in no way justifies the exploitation of trillions of individuals each year - a failure to understand or empathise with another just doesn’t give you the right to use them for your own profit! However, once you take into account our framework of human supremacy, this all begins to make sense. By taking humans to be the most important beings with the most inherent value, we establish a hierarchy of importance that extends to the entire animal kingdom based on how similar an individual or species is to the human ideal. Whilst primates and some other animals whose intelligence mirrors our own get a comparatively good deal out of this (although still very far from adequate), fish come out near the bottom. This is what is happening at Easter, as a lack of consumption of some animals is made up for by eating more fish. With our human supremacist beliefs working in the background, we take difference from us to be an indicator of moral value, and so it feels natural to substitute the meat of land animals for something lower down on our handy, human-centric hierarchy.
So, how can human supremacy be dismantled? This is a big question, and any sufficient answer will include tackling the problem from all angles. First, we can address the belief in human supremacy directly, and show where it is mistaken. Activists and academics have been doing this for decades, and this important work must continue. By asking people what justifies their belief that they are more important than other animals, and pointing out the flaws in their response, we can go some way to opening minds up to the possibility of a more compassionate future. Second, we must work to address the awful conditions of billions of animals in the present. This is what we are doing at Animal Law Focus. We carry out in-depth research on the existing legislation governing infractional behaviour from the companies in the industry, and develop targeted actions and strategies to close regulatory gaps, improve enforcement, and correct non-compliant practices. Through this work, we will not only improve the conditions of farmed animals, but we will also raise awareness of the hidden but systematic cruelty that props up these industries.
Most people care about animals and would be appalled to learn of how they are treated, and it is deep-rooted structures upholding human supremacy that allow these practices to continue. Through revealing how even the substandard laws that we have are being disregarded, we want to inspire people to bring their actions in line with their true principles.
We hope that is enough to reflect on this Easter. It can be a difficult time for vegans and animal lovers, and we encourage you to take care of yourself and prioritise your wellbeing. You can reach out to us here, and find out about volunteering opportunities with us. To keep up with our work, follow us on instagram and subscribe to our newsletter. we have exciting things coming!
Until next time, have a happy, compassionate Easter!
Written by Dylan Holmes Cowan.