Religious and moral hybridity of vegetarian activism at farm animal sanctuaries
pp. 323-345
in: Stanley , Stanley D. Brunn (eds), The changing world religion map, Berlin, Springer, 2015Abstract
The origin of vegetarianism in the U.S. and the U.K. is tied strongly to Christian movements of the nineteenth century, but in recent decades vegetarians have just as strong of an influence from Eastern religions, particularly Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism and the concept of ahimsa. Christian, Eastern, and Enlightenment thought converge at farm animal sanctuaries, which have become places of religious-philosophical moral hybridity. They are places where farm animals that have been abandoned or removed from agricultural settings are brought to live out their lives. Sanctuary activists educate the public about the treatment of animals in agriculture and challenge dominant agricultural practices and the consumption of foods made from animals. For some activists there is a desire to recover a state akin to the Garden of Eden. For others there is a rejection of the Edenic ideal.