Appendix: Examples of misanthropy in the environmentalist and animal rights movements

Back to chapter 6 References

Image courtesy of the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement. Eco Depth Gauge also published in "Deep Environmental Politics: The Role of Radical Environmentalism in Crafting American Environmental Policy" by Phillip F. Cramer, Praeger 1998, page 11.

The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement believes that "phasing out the human race by voluntarily ceasing to breed will allow Earth's biosphere to return to good health".

The following quotes are mostly taken from the Web page of the National Animals Interest Alliance, which describes itself as "an association of business, agricultural, scientific, and recreational interests dedicated to promoting animal welfare, supporting responsible animal use and strengthening the bond between humans and animals. Our members are pet owners, dog and cat clubs, obedience clubs and rescue groups as well as breeders, trainers, veterinarians, research scientists, farmers, fishermen, hunters and wildlife biologists."

Quotes

"If you haven't given voluntary human extinction much thought before, the idea of a world with no people in it may seem strange. But, if you give it a chance, I think you might agree that the extinction of Homo Sapiens would mean survival for millions, if not billions, of Earth-dwelling species ... Phasing out the human race will solve every problem on earth, social and environmental."
"Les U. Knight" (pseudonym), "Voluntary Human Extinction," Wild Earth, Vol. 1, No. 2, (Summer 1991), p. 72.

"Humans have grown like a cancer. We're the biggest blight on the face of the earth."
Ingrid Newkirk, PeTA's founder, president and former national director, Readers Digest, June 1990.

"I am not a morose person, but I would rather not be here. I don't have any reverence for life, only for the entities themselves. I would rather see a blank space where I am. This will sound like fruitcake stuff again but at least I wouldn't be harming anything."
Ingrid Newkirk, founder, president and former national director, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PeTA), as quoted in Chip Brown, "She's a Portrait of Zealotry in Plastic Shoes," Washington Post, November 13, 1983, p. B10.

"Animal liberationists do not separate out the human animal, so there is no rational basis for saying that a human being has special rights. A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. They're all mammals."
Ingrid Newkirk, PeTA's founder and president, Washingtonian Magazine, August 1986.

"I'm not only uninterested in having children. I am opposed to having children. Having a purebred human baby is like having a purebred dog; it is nothing but vanity, human vanity."
Ingrid Newkirk, PeTA's founder and president, New Yorker magazine, April 23, 2003.

Question to PETA Outreach Coordinator Susan Rich: "If you were aboard a lifeboat with a baby and a dog, and the boat capsized, which would you rescue?"
Rich's answer: "I wouldn't know for sure... I might choose the human baby or I might choose the dog."
(Steve Kane Show, WIOD-AM Radio, Miami, Florida)

"The life of an ant and that of my child should be granted equal consideration."
Dr. Michael W. Fox, Scientific Director and former Vice President, The Humane Society of the United States, The Inhumane Society, New York, 1990.

[Expressing opposition to use of bug sprays] "Only a few of the million you kill would have bitten you."
Dr. Michael Fox, Scientific Director and former Vice President of Humane Society of the US (HSUS), Returning to Eden, Fox publication.

"Humans are exploiters and destroyers, self-appointed world autocrats around whom the universe seems to revolve."
Sydney Singer, director, the Good Shepherd Foundation, "The Neediest of All Animals," The Animals Agenda, Vol. 10, No. 5 (June 1990), p. 50.