Respect for all Life

Special Bear Respect for all Life, Santiago de Chile
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Special Bear Respect for all Life in Santiago de Chile

Respect for life cannot be divided - in the same way as life cannot be divided and separation always leads to barbaric behaviour. For this same reason the doctor, theologian and philosopher, Albert Schweitzer, was one of the first people demanding respect for all life:” Ethics so far have been imperfect as they believed in just dealing with the interaction between people. But in reality it should be about human behaviour towards all things alive. I am the life that wants to live, surrounded by life that wants to be alive.” The respect of mankind mustn’t stop when it comes to the other parts of nature holding everything that’s alive. Human beings have a great moral responsibility to preserve nature as they are undoubtedly a part of it. We have no right to abuse this responsibility out of self-destructive, short-sighted selfishness and to exterminate other life and habitats carelessly. Only if we understand the original context of all being – which above all means respecting our fellow-creatures capable of suffering, the animals, we have the moral right to claim having reached a level of sophistication as human beings.

Special Bear Respect for all Life, Astana
Special Bear Respect for all Life in Rio de Janeiro

Cruelties all over the world against animals cannot be tolerated. It’s a question of how we see humanity, acknowledge ethic basic rights, for example respect of all life. Especially in our times with their frightening its increase in violence, crime and terrorism protecting animals takes on a special meaning as it’s closely linked to protecting human beings: there is a scientifically proven link between torturing animals and the readiness to use violence against people. Not only is it against humanity, but also against human dignity to torture animals. This is reflected in the following wonderful quote by Mahatma Ghandi: "The greatness and the moral progress of a society can be measured with how it treats its animals.” According to this all people are called upon to treat animals with respect.

As it’s a bear that symbolises the concept “Respect for all life”, we would like to express our greatest respect for a project that acts as a role model for that concept by rescuing cruelly tortured bears - the "Moon Bear Rescue" of the animals AsiaFoundation (www.animalsasia.org).

Alexandra Oetker (Artist)

Special Bear Respect for all Life, Rio de Janeiro
Special Bear Respect for all Life, Berlin