Animal Rights and the Nazis
In April 1933, soon after they had come to power, the Nazis passed laws regulating the slaughter of animals.
Later that year Herman Goering announced an end to the 'unbearable torture and suffering in animal experiments'and-in an extremely unusual admission of the existence of such institutions, threatened to 'commit to concentration camps those who still think they can continue to treat animals as inanimate property.' Bans on vivisection were issued in Bavaria and Prussia. Horses, cats and apes were singled out for special protection.
In 1936, a special law was passed regarding the correct way of dispatching lobsters and crabs and thus mitigating their terminal agonies. Crustaceans were to be thrown into rapidly boiling water. Bureaucrats at the Nazi Ministry of the Interior had produced learned research papers on the kindest method of killing. Essen Sie Ihre Gemüse!
Goebbels said, famously, 'The only real friend one has in the end is the dog. . .The more I get to know the human species, the more I care for my Benno.' Goebbels also agreed with Hitler that 'meat eating is a perversion in our human nature,' and that Christianity was a 'symptom of decay', since it did not urge vegetarianism. Rudolf Hess was another affectionate pet owner.
Hunde über Leuten Nazi leaders harboured affection towards animals but antipathy to humans. Hitler was given films by a maharaja which displayed animals killing people. The Fuehrer watched with equanimity. Another film showed humans killing animals. Hitler covered his eyes and begged to be told when the slaughter was over.
In the same passage in his diary from the 1920s quoted above, Goebbels wrote, 'As soon as I am with a person for three days, I don't like him any longer. . .I have learned to despise the human being from the bottom of my soul.'