Tom Regan tells how human beings have developed a more advance technology that will kill a whale in the matter of minutes. When the whale is captured, he fights and struggles with the crew men until his death. The whale is used for things as small as candle wax, perfume, soap, oil, pet food, margarine, and fertilizer. The rest of the remains are disregarded. An innocent animal is killed to provide man with unnecessary products. Similar to the whale, Mark Twain discovered a case when buffalos where hunted and wasted. Some hunters organized a buffalo hunt to eat and for entertainment. The hunter slaughters seventy- two buffalos; however only one buffalo was eaten, and the others were left to decay. Once again a group of animals was killed for the enjoyment of man.
Mark Twain compares a human being to an anaconda snake. For example, seven calves were thrown into a cage with the frightening anaconda snake. The snake only ate one of the calves, and it was satisfied; whereas, an unsuccessful gibbon hunt caused other gibbons to be at danger. Tom Regan wrote about a case, when man tried to capture a infant gibbon from its mother. The gibbon and her infant were brutally hunted. After the shots hit the gibbon, it leaped from branch to branch until it reached its last breath. However, the gibbons fall broke the infant’s neck. Since the infant did not survive the fall, the mission was not accomplished. The hunters had to seek other gibbons to capture its infant gibbon. Both authors showed that man is selfish, greedy, and insensible.
In Regan’s story, man’s justification of inflicting pain on a rabbit is that the rabbit does not have tear ducts; therefore, irritants can not be flushed from its eyes. Researchers take advantage of this deficiency and test different products in the rabbit’s eye. The different products are tested to establish the eye-irritancy of products such as: mouthwash, talc, toothpaste and cologne. Mark Twain informs readers how monks are burnt to death. Before the method of burning the monks to death, the monks suffered until death.
In contrast, the authors’ concept was slightly different. Tom Regan focuses mainly on the usage of animals for research and the convenience of man. Regan disagrees of humans denying animals of any rights. He shows how animals endure so much pain, so that life for man is improved. Mark Twain’s thoughts stress man’s indifference to animals, as well as, the state of human beings. He manipulates the reader’s thoughts of the so called lower animal into the higher animal. Twain’s interpretation of human beings is that they are the lower animals, and those animals are more superior to humans. Both stories expose the injustice of animals and the inhumanity of man.