A cow is born in America, and a gentleman is born in America, but the state takes care of the gentleman, not of the cows.

Cows join in protest

Equal rights for cows and other animals

The animals, they are taken to slaughterhouse. If one animal enters, all the animals will enter. They do not know. Even they know that "We are going to be slaughtered," they have no means to protest or to go out. If a human being is slaughtered in the street, then his relatives, his kinsmen, file suit and brings the man into law. So many facilities are there for a human being. But an animal, because it is animal, it has no facility. A cow is born in America, and a gentleman is born in America, but the state takes care of the gentleman, not of the cows. They say "national," "nationality." Why nationality is refused to the animals? Just like few days or few years ago the nationality was also awarded to the black man. This is nice. Why one section of humanity should be denied nationality? That was very nice. So similarly, if national means the living entity born in that land... That is natural. If a child, even of an Indian, if a child is born in your country he gets immediately the citizenship. That is the law. So the conclusion is that anyone who is born in this land, he gets nationality. But why we should refuse nationality to the poor animals? This is called ignorance. He is also... But we have made concoction, law, that "Animal has no soul." Why it is, it has no soul? What is the difference between you and animal? You eat; the animal eats. You sleep; the animal sleeps. You have sex life; the animal has sex life. You also try to defend yourself and the animal also tries to defend himself. So ahara-nidra-bhaya-maithunam cha, eating, sleeping, mating, and defending, these four principles, bodily demand, are similar to the animal and to the man. So why the animals should be denied nationality? It is not that because they are less intelligent they should be denied nationality. No. Just like a father has got four boys. Not that everyone is of the same intelligence. But does the father give less protection to the less intelligent son? No. The protection, the family protection, is equal for everyone.

This is the conception, bhagavata community: equal rights to everyone, even to the animals. That is Krishna consciousness. Krishna consciousness means panditah sama-darshinah, learned. One who is Krishna conscious, he is fully learned, pandit. So what is the symptom of a pandit, learned man? That is stated in the Bhagavad-gita:

vidya-vinaya-sampanne
brahmane gavi hastini
shuni caiva shva-pake cha
panditah sama-darshinah

"The humble sage, by virtue of true knowledge, sees with equal vision a learned and gentle brahmana, a cow, an elephant, a dog and a dog-eater [outcaste]." [Bg. 5.18]