Ray Lyman Wilbur Quotes

Humans have a fraught relationship with beasts. They are our companions and our chattel, our family members and our laborers, our household pets and our household pests. We love them and cage them, admire them and abuse them. And, of course, we cook and eat them.

Of course 'we humans' have a funny relationship with the beings with whom we share our planet. We eat them, we care for them, we admire them, we use them.

If we are concerned about the exploitation of human workers in countries with low standards of worker protection, we should also be concerned about the treatment of even more defenceless non-human animals.

Animals weren't put on this earth to entertain us.

Man is the only animal that can be skinned more than once.

Say no to circuses that exploit and abuse animals.

The gentle government that promises to hold your hand as you cross the street refuses to let go on the other side.

At the end of the day, I'd love to see children stop begging their parents to go to the circus. That's what would make me most happy.

Bolivia recently did what every country should do - banned the use of animals in circuses.

I love to go to the zoo. But not on Sunday. I don't like to see the people making fun of the animals, when it should be the other way around.

To save an animal's life in order that it may suffer indefinitely is something I would never condone.

Any abuse of animals is the same as abuse of men, women, or children.

It is the duty of a good shepherd to shear his sheep, not to skin them.

I don't believe in pets. I like animals to be wild and free.

Although we have, in theory, abolished human slavery, recognized women's rights, and stopped child labor, we continue to enslave other species who, if we simply pay attention, show quite clearly that they experience parental love, pain, and the desire for freedom, just as we do.

Several countries - among them Austria, Costa Rica, Denmark, Finland, India, Israel and Sweden - ban or severely restrict the use of wild animals in circuses. In Brazil, a movement to ban wild animals from circuses started after hungry lions managed to grab and devour a small boy.

The shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and his own are the same.

In my movies, there has been little to do in the way of animal rights. I have never worked in a movie with animals. No horse-riding, no trained dogs, lions, bears. A few actors, but what could I do? We had to have them.

It is not part of a true culture to tame tigers, any more than it is to make sheep ferocious.

Animals don't have anyone to protect them. If we don't stand up, the people who are harming animals will never get stopped.

Animals, whom we have made our slaves, we do not like to consider our equal.

I believe in preventing cruelty to all living beings in any form.

We don't need to eat anyone who would run, swim, or fly away if he could.

Because animals are property, we consider as 'humane treatment' that we would regard as torture if it were inflicted on humans.

I hope to make people realize how totally helpless animals are, how dependent on us, trusting as a child must that we will be kind and take care of their needs.