Crueldade consentida – Crítica à razão antropocêntrica

Abstract

Despite the fact that the Brazilian Constitution is against animal violence, protecting
the fauna integrity, actually it does not work. However, our law system allows cruel acts and
accepts the violence done by those who consider themselves rational and superior. Just watch
the evil reality at the streets, public shows (circus) and farms, where the animals suffer and
are exploited to their limits. Also watch the pain of the animals that are part of an industrial
production, the horror at the slaughter houses and the scientific experiments laboratories. It
means that we have a contradiction.
Blind and cold, we live in a world that lacks justice. The cycle of the human life is limited
to personal ambitions, selfish actions and superfluous pleasures. There’s no space to
compassion. Under this anthropocentric view, the nature of the animals is no more important
and becomes economic or environmental resources. Our system, by rejecting the essence of
each living being, defends the fauna only for the purpose the human interests. The animals
are treated like merchandise, resources or consumption goods and the law denies them the
right to be sensitive. It must be changed, there can be no more silent before so much oppression.
For many centuries the human being has been dominating, torturing, killing and exterminating
other species, because of economic, commercial, cultural and gastronomic interests or just
sadism. The history shows that our relationship with the animals is marked by fanatism,
supersticions, ignorance and indifference. It’s a Ministério Público function, as a social
transforming agent, to fight against this situation. We must admit the animals presence in
the sphere of the human moralities, allowing them to have rights. The question is not only of
the law, but philosophic. It’s primordial that we review our teaching methods, searching for
a formula to respect the essence of animal life no matter what it is. Without a doubt, this
way is far from the anthropocentrism.