Plutarch | The Picture Quotes Blog

But for the sake of a little flesh we deprive them of the sun, of the light, of the duration of life to which they are entitled by birth and being.
Plutarch

Who was Plutarch?

Plutarch was a Greek historian, who later became a Roman citizen, a biographer and essayist, he was born 46 -120 CE into a prominent family in Chaeronea, Boeotia, a town about twenty miles east of Delphi.

Of particular note is Plutarch’s essay On the Eating of Animal Flesh, Volume 12 The Moralia, from which the quotations below were taken.

In this essay Plutarch challenges the idea that man is naturally carnivorous; an excuse so often used today to justify the eating of meat appears to have been used for its justification in ancient times. Also In his discussion against meat eating Plutarch maintains that animals deserve ethical consideration because they possess the attributes of intelligence and sentience.

Animal Rights: A History, Plutarch
http://think-differently-about-sheep.com/Animal_Rights_A_History_Plutarch.htm

The Deeper Minds Of All Ages Have Had Pity For Animals
Friedrich Nietzsche

Below are just a few quotes from those who supported animals rights beginning with the ancient world to the present day.

“We declare, then, that it is absurd for them to say that the practise of flesh-eating is based on nature . For that man is not naturally carnivorous is, in the first place, obvious from the structure of his body. A mans frame is in no way similar to those creatures who were made for flesh-eating; he has no hooked beak or sharp nails or jagged teeth, no strong stomach or warmth of vital fluids able to digest and assimilate a heavy diet of flesh.”
Plutarch