UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST ANIMAL MINISTRY
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QUOTATIONS LINKS EVENTS LEADERSHIPethics of interspecies compassion as an integral component of liberal religion."
WHO ARE WE? UFETA is a group of concerned Unitarian Universalists and UU friends who believe that the movement to end animal abuse presents us with one of the most pressing moral issues of our time. Human beings are in danger of losing our connection to the natural world. We live in cities that insulate us from the rhythms of creation. The misuse of science and technology has lead us to believe that we are exempt from the laws of nature. And a human-centered religious tradition has fostered the notion that the earth and her creatures have no other function other than to serve human wishes. These are dangerous beliefs—beliefs which not only justify cruelty toward other sentient beings, but which have also brought about the destruction of the environment and ultimately imperil our own survival. Because the fate of non-human animals is tied to our own, we have little to lose and everything to gain from our activism in response to the current ecological crisis. As people of faith, we cannot stand idly by or look away as, every day, animals by the billions are imprisoned, hunted, trapped, clubbed, harpooned, poisoned, mutilated, shocked, burned, irradiated, subjected to unspeakable pain and torture, and even pushed to the edge of extinction in the name of science, commerce, entertainment or sport—often for no other reason than to satisfy human vanity. Drawing on our UU principles and upon rich religious and philosophical traditions, we aim to deepen our awareness of this moral issue, reaching out to other religious and ethical individuals to shape a vision of liberation that will include all creation. |
OUR PURPOSE/OUR GOALS: To move from the mere celebration of the "interdependent web of existence" into practices that affirm species interdependence in our everyday personal, social, economic and political lives.
We
pledge ourselves:
•
To inform UUs and other people of conscience about the widespread
abuse of animals
• To encourage UU ministers,
lay leaders, and congregants to open a dialogue about this challenging
moral issue
• To work toward the adoption
of a General Resolution on the Ethical Treatment of Animals at the General
Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association, and to encourage the
study and implementation of that Resolution in UU congregations around
the world
• To incorporate humane education
materials and attitudes into our religious education programs at all age
levels
• To encourage UU ministers
to deliver sermons on animal rights issues and to develop services on
animals during the yearly calendar
• To develop and support social
action programs to implement our goals of justice and compassion for all
creatures
• To work, along with other
people of humane and compassionate beliefs, toward the exclusion of cruel,
wasteful and repetitive testing of commercial products; duplicative, unnecessary,
wasteful and even frivolous biomedical research using animals; the widespread
abuse of "food" animals on factory farms and in transit to slaughter,
the destruction of fur-bearing animals for profit; "sport hunting";
and events which mistreat animals for entertainment
• To encourage UUs and others
to explore and adopt a more humane lifestyle, focusing on ethical consumerism,
vegetarianism, the use of cruelty-free products and the development of
alternatives to the use of animals in research and products testing
