Editorial

It is a tribute to the human heart that it is moved 
by the suffering of fellow non-human creatures who cannot even speak of their suffering to us. Compassion for the larger animals like the cow, goat, pig, hen comes easily and naturally. But the smaller the life/creature becomes or the nearer to the border of some notion of ‘worthiness’, the more feeble our sympathy for its condition.

Invertebrates like insects universally lie on the other side of this border. Few people would love a cockroach and/or be unrepulsed by a scorpion. So these creatures suffer attacks from us because of the dangers we sense from them. But what does one say of the beautiful butterfly which unfortunately becomes the victim of juvenile cruelty and vanity by being killed for its dazzling wings to be kept pressed between pages of a notebook or mounted for decoration. The silk moth in addition to not being as strikingly beautiful as a butterfly, is also guilty of the ultimate sin of producing a substance that has aroused man’s desire. For pure vanity, not any survival need like food or warmth. For this it pays with its life, falling prey to the great commercial predatory machine of mankind even though it causes us no harm and stays out of our way.

The beautiful butterfly or ladybird beetle have nowadays found many champions for their right to a free life in nature. The silk moth, however, continues to be exploited relentlessly, even by religious figureheads.It is sad that today, the atmosphere surrounding many of our spiritual leaders—otherwise vegetarian—is full of negative vibrations from their using silk robes during religious ceremonies. This phenomenon is sad primarily because it is indicative of a lack of high ideals and depth of thinking on the part of the leaders. If they do not think of this, how will the layperson? Only if they think of insects will the common man start thinking of larger animals.