162 Animal Welfare Quotes

Following is our list of animal welfare quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about animal ethics.

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Famous Animal Welfare Quotes

Man's highest duty is to protect animals from cruelty. — Emile Zola

You know, we all oppose animal cruelty. But sometimes we forget that animals on farms suffer and feel pain like all other animals. They, too, deserve to be protected from harm and cruelty. — Charlotte Ross

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. — Mahatma Gandhi

To inflict cruelties on defenceless creatures, or condone such acts, is to abuse one of the cardinal tenets of a civilized society - reverence for life. — Jon Evans

We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals. - Immanuel Kant

We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals. — Immanuel Kant

Cruelty to animals is an enormous injustice; so is expecting those on the lowest rung of the economic ladder to do the dangerous, soul-numbing work of slaughtering sentient beings on our behalf. — Victoria Moran

Humanity's true moral test, its fundamental test…consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals. — Milan Kundera

The fate of animals is of greater importance to me than the fear of appearing ridiculous; it is indissolubly connected with the fate of men. — Emile Zola

I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being. — Abraham Lincoln

Compassion for animals is intimately associated with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man. — Arthur Schopenhauer

All animals, including humans, have a right to lives of dignity and respect, without forced intrusions. — Marc Bekoff

I love animals and feel very strongly that people should not be allowed to buy a pet if they are not able to look after it. — Kirsty Gallacher

God requires that we assist the animals, when they need our help. Each being (human or creature) has the same right of protection. — Francis of Assisi

We don't let animals suffer, so why humans? — Stephen Hawking

I believe animals should be respected as citizens of this earth. They should have the right to their own freedom, their own families, and their own life. — John Feldmann

Short Animal Welfare Quotes

  • Animal Rights is now the greatest Social Justice issue since the abolition of slavery. — Philip Wollen
  • Mercy to animals means mercy to mankind. — Henry Bergh
  • Cruelty to animals is one of the most significant vices of a low and ignoble people. — Alexander von Humboldt
  • It is not an act of kindness to treat animals respectfully. It is an act of justice. — Tom Regan
  • The purity of a person's heart can be quickly measured by how they regard animals — Theophile Gautier
  • You can judge a man's true character by the way he treats his fellow animals. — Paul McCartney
Animal welfare quote Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.
Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.

Animal Welfare Vegan Quotes

The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man. — Charles Darwin

One day the absurdity of the almost universal human belief in the slavery of other animals will be palpable. We shall then have discovered our souls and become worthier of sharing this planet with them. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

May all that have life be delivered from suffering. — Buddha

Animal welfare quote Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter.
Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter.

A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him. — Albert Schweitzer

Miley [Cyrus] is so sweet. In this generation - and I know because I have two teenage boys - they don't really have to care about things. It's kind of a desensitized generation. I'm so impressed that she's really vegan and outspoken about animal welfare. — Pamela Anderson

Killing animals for sport, for pleasure, for adventure, and for hides and furs is a phenomena which is at once disgusting and distressing. There is no justification in indulging is such acts of brutality. — Dalai Lama

Animal welfare quote It takes nothing away from a human to be kind to an animal.
It takes nothing away from a human to be kind to an animal.

There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher mammals in their mental faculties...The difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind. — Charles Darwin

Animal Ethics Quotes

You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The day may come when the rest of the animal creation may acquire those rights which never could have been withholden from them but by the hand of tyranny. — Jeremy Bentham

The meaning of life is pretty clear: Living things strive to pass their genes into the future. The claim that we would not have morals or ethics without religion is extraordinary. Animals in nature seem to behave in moral ways without organized religion. — Bill Nye

Animal welfare quote Be kind to every kind, not just mankind.
Be kind to every kind, not just mankind.

I think using animals for food is an ethical thing to do, but we've got to do it right. We've got to give those animals a decent life, and we've got to give them a painless death. We owe the animal respect. — Temple Grandin

The assumption that animals are without rights, and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance, is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality. — Arthur Schopenhauer

A man is ethical only when life, as such, is sacred to him, that of plants and animals as that of his fellow men, and when he devotes himself helpfully to all life that is in need of help. — Albert Schweitzer

Animal welfare quote If your dog doesn’t like someone you probably shouldn’t, either.
If your dog doesn’t like someone you probably shouldn’t, either.

Animals shouldn't be mistreated. — Tucker Carlson

What is it that should trace the insuperable line? ...The question is not, Can they reason? nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer? — Jeremy Bentham

Our treatment of animals, in every department, is deeply and systematically immoral. Becoming a vegetarian is only the most minimal ethical response to the magnitude of the evil. — Colin McGinn

Truly man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds them. We live by the death of others. We are burial places. — Leonardo da Vinci

Animal Rights Quotes

Never, never be afraid to do what's right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way. — Martin Luther King

All things of creation are children of the Father and thus brothers of man. ... God wants us to help animals, if they need help. Every creature in distress has the same right to be protected. — Francis of Assisi

The fidelity of a dog is a precious gift demanding no less binding moral responsibilities than the friendship of a human being. — Konrad Lorenz

Animal welfare quote When it is too hard to look back, and you are afraid to look ahead... Look beside you. I'll always b
When it is too hard to look back, and you are afraid to look ahead... Look beside you. I'll always be there.

Not to hurt our humble brethren is our first duty to them, but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission - to be of service to them whenever they require it. — Francis of Assisi

I became a vegetarian after realizing that animals feel afraid, cold, hungry and unhappy like we do. I feel very deeply about vegetarianism and the animal kingdom. It was my dog Boycott who led me to question the right of humans to eat other sentient beings. — Cesar Chavez

Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages. — Thomas Jefferson

Animal welfare quote We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.
We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.

It should not be believed that all beings exist for the sake of the existence of man. On the contrary, all the other beings too have been intended for their own sakes and not for the sake of anything else. — Maimonides

Animals share with us the privilege of having a soul. - Pythagoras

Animals share with us the privilege of having a soul. — Pythagoras

It is through this mysterious power that we too have our being, and we therefore yield to our neighbors, even to our animal neighbors, the same right as ourselves to inhabit this vast land. — Sitting Bull

We cannot have peace among men whose hearts find delight in killing any living creature. — Rachel Carson

Animal Rights Activists Quotes

Because I'm a civil rights activist, I am also an animal rights activist. Animals and humans suffer and die alike. Violence causes the same pain, the same spilling of blood, the same stench of death, the same arrogant, cruel and vicious taking of life. We shouldn't be a part of it. — Dick Gregory

It's not about loving animals. It's about fighting injustice. My whole goal is for humans to have as little contact as possible with animals. — Gary Yourofsky

I don't have a hands - on fondness for animals. I did not grow up bonded to any particular nonhuman animal. I like them and I pet them and I'm kind to them, but there's no special bond between me and other animals... — Wayne Pacelle

Animal welfare quote Animals do speak, but only to those who know how to listen.
Animals do speak, but only to those who know how to listen.

I'm an animal rights activist because I believe we won't have a planet if we continue to behave toward other species the way we do. — James Cromwell

Pet ownership is an absolutely abysmal situation brought about by human manipulation. — Ingrid Newkirk

If abandoning animal research means that there are some things we cannot learn, then so be it ... We have no basic right ... not to be harmed by those natural diseases we are heir to. — Tom Regan

Animal welfare quote Every animal on earth is a living being with feelings, emotions, and a family life. Just like you an
Every animal on earth is a living being with feelings, emotions, and a family life. Just like you and me.

Six million Jews died in concentration camps, but six billion broiler chickens will die this year in slaughter houses. — Ingrid Newkirk

In the end, I think it would be lovely if we stopped this whole notion of pets altogether. — Ingrid Newkirk

Surely there will be some nonhuman animals whose lives, by any standards, are more valuable than the lives of some humans. — Peter Singer

Eating meat is primitive, barbaric, and arrogant. — Ingrid Newkirk

Animal Activist Quotes

Even if animal tests produced a cure for AIDS, we'd be against it. — Ingrid Newkirk

When a human being kills an animal for food, he is neglecting his own hunger for justice. — Isaac Bashevis Singer

Probably everything we do is a publicity stunt ... we are not here to gather members, to please, to placate, to make friends. We're here to hold the radical line. — Ingrid Newkirk

Animal welfare quote Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened.
Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened.

If it were a retarded baby and a bright dog, I'd save the dog. — Tom Regan

Our nonviolent tactics are not as effective. We ask nicely for years and get nothing. Someone makes a threat, and it works. — Ingrid Newkirk

Humans have grown like a cancer. We're the biggest blight on the face of the earth. — Ingrid Newkirk

Animal welfare quote The soul is the same in all living creatures although the body of each is different.
The soul is the same in all living creatures although the body of each is different.

We have no problem with the extinction of domestic animals. — Wayne Pacelle

We feel that animals have the same rights as retarded human nchild because they are equal mentally in terms of dependence on others. — Alex Pacheco

Arson, property destruction, burglary, and theft are 'acceptable crimes' when used for the animal cause. — Alex Pacheco

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

Animal Compassion Quotes

If a man aspires towards a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals. — Albert Einstein

Alas, what wickedness to swallow flesh into our own flesh, to fatten our greedy bodies by cramming in other bodies, to have one living creature fed by the death of another! — Pythagoras

As custodians of the planet it is our responsibility to deal with all species with kindness, love, and compassion. That these animals suffer through human cruelty is beyond understanding. Please help to stop this madness. — Richard Gere

A robin redbreast in a cage Puts all heaven in a rage. - William Blake

A robin redbreast in a cage Puts all heaven in a rage. — William Blake

All the arguments to prove man's superiority cannot shatter this hard fact: in suffering, the animals are our equals. — Peter Singer

We experience ourselves our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. — Albert Einstein

The animal should not be measured by man. In a world older than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the sense we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. — Henry Beston

Poor animals! How jealously they guard their pathetic bodies...that which to us is merely an evening's meal, but to them is life itself. — T. Casey Brennan

Nothing living should ever be treated with contempt. Whatever it is that lives, a man, a tree, or a bird, should be touched gently, because the time is short. Civilization is another word for respect for life. — Elizabeth Goudge

I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men. — Leonardo da Vinci

Animal Research Quotes

Atrocities are not less atrocities when they occur in laboratories and are called medical research. — George Bernard Shaw

If an 'animal abuser' were killed in a research lab firebombing, I would unequivocally support that, too. — Gary Yourofsky

I discovered cosplay because I was going to an anime convention and did some research, and found out people dressed up as characters. I made a very badly put-together costume because I felt this desire to dress up. — Yaya Han

New drugs and surgical techniques offer promise in the fight against cancer, Alzheimer's, tuberculosis, AIDS, and a host of other life-threatening diseases. Animal research has been, and continues to be, fundamental to advancements in medicine. — Daniel Akaka

New drugs and surgical techniques offer promise in the fight against cancer, Alzheimer's, tuberculosis, AIDS, and a host of other life-threatening diseases. Animal research has been, and continues to be, fundamental to advancements in medicine. — Daniel Kahikina Akaka

The excuse or toleration of cruelty upon any living creature by a woman is a deadly sin against the grandest force in nature - maternal love ... In not a single instance known to science has the cure of any human disease resulted necessarily from this fallacious method of research. — Elizabeth Blackwell

Given the choice of apathy or someone liberating mink, burning down a research torture-laboratory, or killing a vivisectionist or other DIRECT murderer of animals, I will choose the aforesaid actions over apathy any day of the week.- — Gary Yourofsky

Researching 'Lone Wolf,' I was amazed at how thoughtful and intelligent these animals are. There has never been a documented attack against a human by a wolf that wasn't provoked by the human. — Jodi Picoult

Without animal research, polio would still be claiming thousands of lives each year. — Albert Sabin

I became a vegetarian at 15. I was always an animal lover and, as a teenager, became increasingly uncomfortable with the idea of eating meat. It was then that I started to research vegetarianism. — Laura Mennell

Animals And Society Quotes

Play is older than culture, for culture, however inadequately defined, always presupposes human society, and animals have not waited for man to teach them their playing. — Johan Huizinga

I have no race prejudices, and I think I have no color prejudices or caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. Indeed I know it. I can stand any society. All that I care to know is that a man is a human being-that is enough for me; he can't be any worse. — Mark Twain

There is too much animal courage in society and not sufficient moral courage. — Mary Baker Eddy

You, (my meat-eating friends), put your health at risk – that’s your business. But animal-based diets put the land, the water, the air, a society’s collective health, and even our collective pharmaceutical resources at risk. That’s my business. That’s everyone’s business. — Howard Lyman

You can tell all you need to about a society from how it treats animals and beaches. — Frank DeFord

A secret society exists, and is living among all of us. They are neither people nor animals, but something in-between. — Karen White

The whole underside of our society has always been violence and still is. Churches, laws - everybody seems to think that man is a noble savage. But he's only an animal. A meat-eating, talking animal. Recognize it. He also has grace and love and beauty. But don't say to me we're not violent. — Sam Peckinpah

We are the living graves of murdered beasts. — George Bernard Shaw

Make ethical choices in what we buy, do, and watch. In a consumer-driven society our individual choices, used collectively for the good of animals and nature, can change the world faster than laws. — Marc Bekoff

Our notion of the perfect society embraces the family as its center and ornament, and this paradise is not secure until children appear to animate and complete the picture. — Amos Bronson Alcott

Compassion Towards Animals Quotes

It is much easier to show compassion to animals. They are never wicked. - Haile Selassie

It is much easier to show compassion to animals. They are never wicked. — Haile Selassie

The indifference, callousness and contempt that so many people exhibit toward animals is evil first because it results in great suffering in animals, and second because it results in an incalculably great impoverishment of the human spirit. — Albert Einstein

It ill becomes us to invoke in our daily prayers the blessings of God, the Compassionate, if we in turn will not practice elementary compassion toward our fellow creatures. — Mahatma Gandhi

As often as Herman had witnessed the slaughter of animals and fish, he always had the same thought: in their behavior toward creatures, all men were Nazis. — Isaac Bashevis Singer

Have compassion towards each other, including animals. Love and respect every living being on this planet - a key factor to a greater society. — Matt Sorum

Kindness and compassion towards all living things is a mark of a civilized society. Conversely, cruelty, whether it is directed against human beings or against animals, is not the exclusive province of any one culture or community of people. — Cesar Chavez

Have compassion towards each other, including animals. — Matt Sorum

Buddhism cannot be true to itself until Buddhists resolve their ambivalence toward nonhuman animals and extend the full protection of their compassion to the most harmless and helpless of those who live at our mercy in the visible realms. — Norm Phelps

Let a man fear, above all, me, his God, and so much the gentler will he become toward my creatures and animals, on whom, on account of me, their Creator, he ought to have compassion. — Bridget of Sweden

Animal Testing Quotes

Mankind's true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it. — Milan Kundera

I think animal testing is a terrible idea; they get all nervous and give the wrong answers. — Peter Kay

universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality. — Arthur Schopenhauer

Animals are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time. — Henry Beston

Giving cancer to laboratory animals has not and will not help us to understand the disease or to treat those persons suffering from it. — Albert Sabin

Animals can communicate quite well. And they do. And generally speaking, they are ignored — Alice Walker

Man is the only creature that consumes without producing — George Orwell

Vivisection is a social evil because if it advances human knowledge, it does so at the expense of human character. — George Bernard Shaw

I abhor vivisection with my whole soul. All the scientific discoveries stained with innocent blood I count as of no consequence. — Mahatma Gandhi

It seems to me of great importance to teach children respect for life. — Eleanor Roosevelt

People Writing About Animal Welfare

Name Quotes Likes
Read quotes by Emile Zola

Emile Zola
quotes on naturalism, books and literature

83 1197
Read quotes by Charlotte Ross

Charlotte Ross
quotes on love, leadership and life

12 155
Read quotes by Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi
quotes on education, leadership and success

3167 39957
Read quotes by Immanuel Kant

Immanuel Kant
quotes on love, ethics and god

314 8208
Read quotes by Victoria Moran

Victoria Moran
quotes on love, life and education

67 312
Read quotes by Milan Kundera

Milan Kundera
quotes on love, death and politics

375 2810

More Animal Welfare Quotes

Most people have forgotten how to live with living creatures, with living systems and that, in turn, is the reason why man, whenever he comes into contact with nature, threatens to kill the natural system in which and from which he live. — Konrad Lorenz

We must fight against the spirit of unconscious cruelty with which we treat the animals. Animals suffer as much as we do. True humanity does not allow us to impose such sufferings on them. It is our duty to make the whole world recognize it. Until we extend our circle of compassion to all living things, humanity will not find peace. — Albert Schweitzer

The more I see of men, the better I like my dog. — Frederick the Great

Cruelty to animals is one of the most significant vices of a low and ignoble people. Wherever one notices them, they constitute a sign of ignorance and brutality which cannot be painted over even by all the evidence of wealth and luxury. — Alexander von Humboldt

If a group of beings from another planet were to land on Earth - beings who considered themselves as superior to you as you feel yourself to be to other animals - would you concede them the rights over you that you assume over other animals? — George Bernard Shaw

Animals give me more pleasure through the viewfinder of a camera than they ever did in the crosshairs of a gunsight. — James Stewart

It is vitally important that we can continue to say, with absolute conviction, that organic farming delivers the highest quality, best-tasting food, produced without artificial chemicals or genetic modification, and with respect for animal welfare and the environment, while helping to maintain the landscape and rural communities. — Prince Charles

Love of animals is a universal impulse, a common ground on which all of us may meet. By loving and understanding animals, perhaps we humans shall come to understand each other. — Louis J. Camuti

I didn't realize puppy mills were a problem until my wife, Bessy, and I got our first dog, Cannoli. — Joe Gatto

The animal liberation movement is saying that where animals and humans have similar interests - we might take the interest in avoiding physical pain as an example, for it is an interest that humans clearly share with other animals - those interests are to be counted equally, with no automatic discount just because one of the beings is not human. — Peter Singer

While anyone who practices a religion has the right to their own religious truths, it doesn't give them the right to violate the welfare of another human or an animal. So, where necessary, it is the task of the government to intervene and curb the freedom of religion. — Marianne Thieme

No one in the world needs a mink coat but a mink. — Murray Banks

The awful wrongs and sufferings forced upon the innocent, helpless, faithful animal race form the blackest chapter in the whole world's history. — R. Edward Freeman

Killing an animal to make a coat is sin. It wasn't meant to be, and we have no right to do it. — Doris Day

The cow is an exceptionally loving and gentle creature. She cries for days when her calf is taken from her. It is a pitiful sound, a pitiful sound. — Helen Weston

A good deed done to an animal is as meritorious as a good deed done to a human being, while an act of cruelty to an animal is a bad as an act of cruelty to a human being. — Muhammad

Living with animals can be a wonderful experience, especially if we choose to learn the valuable lessons animals teach through their natural enthusiasm, grace, resourcefulness, affection and forgiveness. — Richard Pitcairn

It seems to me of great importance to teach children respect for life. Towards this end, experiments on living animals in classrooms should be stopped. To encourage cruelty in the name of science can only destroy the finer emotions of affection and sympathy, and breed an unfeeling callousness in the young towards suffering in all living creatures. — Eleanor Roosevelt

Who can believe that there is no soul behind those luminous eyes! — Theophile Gautier

I have developed a deep respect for animals. I consider them fellow living creatures with certain rights that should not be violated any more than those of humans. — James Stewart

A dog has the soul of a philosopher. — Plato

We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words. — Anna Sewell

True benevolence or compassion, extends itself through the whole of existence and sympathizes with the distress of every creature capable of sensation. — Joseph Addison

Living creatures possess a moving soul and a certain spiritual superiority which in this respect make them similar to those who possess intellect (people) and they have the power of affecting their welfare and their food and they flee from pain and death. — Nahmanides

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