What a nice bit of writing. It perfectly expresses my own confused thoughts on the subject.
Our grandchildren will be appalled at how we treat animals. But we live in this time, not their future. We are as trapped by it as out slaveholding ancestors were. On the other hand, if nobody takes a stand now, what sort of people are we?
At least, I think, we can agree that unnecessary cruelty is unnecessary. (That is why we call it that.) “Animal rights” is a silly term. But what sort of people are we if we allow ourselves to be cruel when we need not be?
I agree comprehensively with the views of the writer of that article. I find it odd that the human tendency to anthropomorphise is absent for some some animals, but not others. For example, I could never see cats or dogs appearing on Western menus, barring some sort of apocalyptic event.
Yeah, that’s a good Op-Ed. I think there’s a balance. There’s nothing wrong with eating meat, but some of our methods of raising animals don’t sit well with me. I think part of the problem is that most people never have contact with the animals while they’re alive. When I was a kid, we’d go to the family farm for holidays, so I did have some exposure to beef cattle. I’d spend hours with them, getting some of them to come up to the fence so I could pet them. At the same time, I knew someday I might eat the very animal I was interacting with. It’s hard to look into the eyes of something you will someday eat, and I think that gives a degree of respect and makes you think about how that animal is treated.
At the same time, there’s no way I’d go vegetarian. First of all, I’ve tried it, and my body does better if I include meat in my diet. Second of all, being vegetarian doesn’t mean no animals die. I was surprised a couple of years ago to find out, for example, that raspberry and sunflower farmers can get permits to poison flocks of birds that would otherwise destroy the crop.
You don’t get something for nothing. The mere fact that we exist will have an impact on other life. However, I think we can often be wiser about that impact and make more considered choices about the impact we have. We have a right to exist too, but we also have the reasoning capacity to think about how we go about that existence.
Eating meat is fine, but animals shouldn’t have to suffer uneccesarily for it. The conditions in which livestock (esp chickens in the UK) are raised is appalling and quite frankly we should be ashamed. I want meat that led a happy and healthy life and was slaughtered close to the farm with as little stress as possible (stunned and bled).
Vegetarians don’t get a free pass if they drink milk or eat eggs as male chicks and cattle are killed soon after birth to maintain laying flocks and dairy herds.
People who eat organic meat don’t get a free pass either, animals raised organically are more likely to have diseases (a recent Dutch study found that 25% of organically raised pigs had pneumonia compared with 4% in non-organic). Studies on organic chickens found that 72% had parasitic or bacterial infections. Most damning of all, in organic flocks the level of campylobacter infection, 100% vs just 33% in non-organic.
On the subject of “vegetarians don’t get a free pass” - I think that only applies to the self-righteous ones who trumpet how everyone but them is killing animals. I think most ethical vegetarians realize that animals die regardless of their choices, but eat as they do knowing that at least they’re doing something. Fewer animals are harmed by their choices, and the only way to get that number down to zero would probably involve not existing.
(Full disclosure: I am an ovo-lacto vegetarian who buys and cooks meat for my husband and others. My reasons for being a vegetarian include ethical, environmental, and health reasons, and these days for my digestive “peace” - after not digesting meat proteins for so long, it tends to make me physically ill. No, it’s not a “poor widdle animals” reaction - I’m very matter-of-fact about the preparation and cooking process.)
I mostly agree with the writer. I eat meat, eggs, milk - I’m a true omnivore. I also buy free-range eggs and would really prefer to buy meat and milk from animals that weren’t treated badly (I don’t eat veal at all). Would I put my money where my mouth is, and pay more for cruelty-free meat? Yeah, I would. I don’t give a rat’s ass about organic, but I do care how the animals I eat are treated before they’re slaughtered.
The funny thing for me is when they talk about factory farms and such, I was raised in farm country, and as far as I know, farmers aren’t treating their animals like that. Maybe if I saw inside the barns, I’d see a different story.
There are ethical veal farmers. The calves that go to veal are the males produced by dairy herds. They either go to veal crates or they get killed. Rosé veal is produced without the crate and is therefore a lot less cruel. The problem is finding the ethical veal as I don’t think there’s a lot about (at least not in the UK).
I can’t read the article, but I’ll throw in my opinion - I am and have always been against factory farming in all forms. I do the vast majority of my shopping at a local organic co-op and I will generally only eat beef or chicken if I am absolutely certain that it came from an organic farm. It’s not so much that I care about the animals, it’s more that I care about my own health.