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 “….. animal liberation is human liberation….”
– Syed Rizvi
This is the last of the twenty animal related articles published this year in this magazine.
Articles published in these issues are not focused on the welfare of animals by undermining the well being of humans. In fact, these articles illustrate that our own well being is linked to the well being of animals: by harming animals, we harm ourselves.
In some cases, this message is loud and clear. On animal experimentation, for example, Dr. Ray Greek in the July issue and the current issue of the magazine makes his case that many results based upon animal models have misled the researchers, resulting in drugs that have harmed the public; and on the other hand, drugs that exhibited negative effects on animals and for that reason were kept away from the public for quite some time, eventually turned out to be useful for humans.
Psychologist Ken Shapiro Ph.D. in the August issue of the magazine finds from his studies, there is a direct correlation between animal abuse and violence in the society. Neal Barnard M.D. shows that meat based diet causes major health problems in humans and recommends we switch to diet that is free from animal products. Two articles by Chettana Mirle Ph.D. and by Merritt Clifton unmistakably expose the damage to our environment caused by the animal agriculture.
In many cases, the harm we do to ourselves by our indifference to animals is more subtle and reflective. It is about our ethics and our moral values that cannot be measured on any physical scale, but we know it when we come across it. Peter Singer in the October issue of the magazine challenges us to think about our own moral values and ethics when it comes to our treatment of animals. In fact, by treating animals with compassion, we free ourselves from the callousness and insensitivity toward other beings also.
Ingrid Newkirk in the closing lines of her October article so succinctly states ‘Animal Liberation is human liberation.’ 
Syed Rizvi is a physicist by profession, and through his group, Engineers and Scientists for Animal Rights, he reaches out to the scientific and technical communities, promoting the animal rights philosophy. Syed lives in Silicon Valley, California.
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