“Un país, una civilización se puede juzgar por la forma en que trata a sus animales.”
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Attribution note
A comprehensive search of all volumes of the Collected Works reportedly failed to find this popular animal-welfare line, and variant wordings abound; attribution to Gandhi is unsupported. Candidate is also Spanish.
Likely origin: Spanish rendering of 'The greatness of a nation... can be judged by the way its animals are treated' — widely credited to Gandhi but absent from CWMG; no reliable source.
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How a society treats the creatures that can't vote, complain, or fight back shows what it's really like when nothing forces it to be decent. Kindness toward the powerless is a truer test of character than how people behave toward those who can reward or punish them.
When to use it
- A town that funds a shelter and humane trapping instead of simply poisoning strays.
- A farm that gives its animals room to move and shade in summer, well beyond what any law requires.
- A child taught to gently return a stranded beetle to the grass rather than crush it.