Religion and Animal Cruelty

I my opinion one of the main reasons that animal cruelty is still rife in today's modern society is because of religion. The main religions of today's modern world all put man above animals by proclaiming that Beasts/Animals do not have souls. Whether this is to justify animal sacrifice or the consumption of meat or enslaving animals to do mans bidding.

By elevating man above animals this encourages acts to be committed on animals that would be a criminal offence if committed to another human-being. If all religions taught that all living things were equal like the teachings of Buddhism I believe that animal cruelty would not be the problem it is in today's supposed civilised world.

This does not mean that we must all become Vegans, but we should make sure that animals that are to be killed for consumption have a good life and die in the most humane way modern man has at his disposal. Also by reducing our consumption of meat we can tackle many of the man made crises we face today, like the hole in the ozone layer, destruction of the rain forests and reduction in CO2. Because for every pound of meat produced you need 7 pounds of grain.