by Bruce Friedrich
Animals eat one another in nature, so why shouldn't we eat animals?
Do you care more about animals than humans?
What would you do with all the animals if everyone went vegan?
"You choose to be a vegan. I choose to be a meat-eater. Live and let live."
How can you compare animal abuse to the Holocaust, slavery, etc.?
Aren't vegans deficient in protein, calcium, or other nutrients?
Please note that none of these questions addresses the fact that meat-eating is the worst thing you can do for the environment, supports human injustices both in the U.S. and globally, and harms your own health. Nor do any of these questions address the gratuitous animal abuse on factory farms and in slaughterhouses. I often think that eating meat must be an addiction, because defending it causes normally rational people to resort to questions that have nothing to do with the essential arguments, and pose them as though they justify continuing to eat meat.
Animals eat one another in nature, so why shouldn't
we eat animals? Variations on this include, "Aren't
humans at the top of the food chain?" and "Aren't
humans omnivores?"
Please examine what we do to animals on factory farms and in slaughterhouses,
denying animals everything that is natural to them and then killing
them in gruesome ways, and try to tell me that this is moral.
Nature's law is, without a doubt, Darwin's "survival
of the fittest." Some animals may procreate by rape; other
animals may fight territorial battles to the death. But we hold
ourselves to a higher standard in our interactions with one another.
We even hold ourselves to a higher standard with regard to animals
we often form special bonds with, such as dogs and cats - readily
granting them some basic protections. What animal welfare advocates
suggest is that we should also be compassionate toward all animals.
Do you care more about animals than humans? Variations
on this include, "With so much human suffering, why don't
you focus on human issues?" The interesting thing to me about
this one is that none of my friends who run shelters or soup kitchens
or who work on famine relief ever asks it. The people who ask
this question invariably have not dedicated their lives to alleviating
suffering - human or animal. Of course, a vegan diet is the
only environmentally responsible diet, it's the healthiest
diet, and it's the diet that is the best for U.S. workers
and the global poor. Surely, all suffering should be addressed.
Princeton bioethicist Dr. Peter Singer said: "When nonvegetarians
say that 'human problems come first,' I cannot help
wondering what exactly it is that they are doing for human beings
that compels them to continue to support the wasteful, ruthless
exploitation of farmed animals." One great thing about veganism
is that it allows you to take a stand against suffering without
doing anything that requires any real time or effort. You just
stop supporting cruelty, environmental degradation, exploitation
of human workers, and so on.
What would you do with all the animals if everyone went
vegan? It is simple economics that as fewer people eat
meat and dairy products, prices will go down. All the meat, dairy,
and egg products that exist now will be sold, but for less money.
As more and more people adopt a vegan diet, less of these products
will be produced, because prices will fall. Eventually, we'll
stop raising animals for food altogether. Many people who work
in these industries, except for those in the top positions in
each company, are already being treated very poorly; for example,
most slaughterhouse workers aren't given health insurance,
and many line workers suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome. So the
jobs that replace these jobs will certainly be better than the
jobs that are lost as this industry goes the way of the slave
trade.
Why are you imposing your will on me? This is sometimes
put as, "You choose to be a vegan. I choose to be a meat-eater.
Live and let live." The problem here is that meat and dairy
consumers are supporting the gratuitous abuse of an animal who
had no choice in the matter. They are not putting into practice
a "live and let live" philosophy. Just as child abuse
involves the child who has no choice, eating meat, dairy, or egg
products involves an animal, or many animals, who have had no
choice. And just as you can choose to beat your child, you can
choose to eat meat. But if you do, you're hurting someone
who is powerless to stop you. This should not
be your personal choice.
Don't plants feel pain? This also is sometimes
posed as, "Where do you draw the line? Rights for roaches?"
So far, as best we can determine biologically and physiologically,
plants do not feel pain. They are alive and have some sort of
response to light, water, etc., but they don't feel pain.
Pain requires a brain, a central nervous system, pain receptors,
and so on. All mammals, birds, and fish have these things. No
plants do. We all know this to be true: We all understand that
there is a fundamental difference between cutting your lawn and
lighting a cat's tail on fire and between breaking up a head
of lettuce and bashing a dog's head in. Birds, mammals, and
fish are made of flesh, bones, and fat, just as we are. They feel
pain, just as we do. I may not know quite where to draw the line.
For example, I'm not sure what a roach or an ant experiences.
But I do know with 100 percent certainty that intentionally inflicting
suffering because of tradition, custom, convenience, or a palate
preference is unethical. And if we're eating meat, dairy
products, or eggs, we're intentionally causing suffering,
for no good reason.
How can you compare animal abuse to the Holocaust, slavery,
etc.? Many great thinkers, from Tolstoy to Harriet Beecher
Stowe, to Gandhi, to Albert Schweitzer, to Alice Walker, to Dick
Gregory, to Holocaust victim and Nobel laureate Isaac Bashevis
Singer have made the point that the same justification is used
to support both animal and human exploitation - the moral paradigm
of "might makes right" - I can do this to animals,
or people, so I'm going to. To follow up on the last question,
why do people eat animal products? It's for some inconsequential
reason, such as convenience, tradition, or taste, and because
they can - because the animals can't defend themselves.
No one argues that the animals want to be raised this way, transported
this way, killed this way. Most people understand how gruesomely
violent slaughterhouses are. But they don't want to bother
making the change, even though it's easier than ever. They
eat animals because they can. Well, that moral paradigm is no
more justifiable when applied to animals than when applied to
people. In fact, Isaac Bashevis Singer held that speciesism - bias
on the basis of species - is the epitome of this "might
makes right" moral paradigm, because animals are the weakest
and least able to speak up for themselves. Regardless, though,
if you think that animals have any right to be free from gratuitous
abuse, and you want to live more in keeping with your principles,
then you have to adopt a vegan diet.
Aren't vegans deficient in protein, calcium, or other
nutrients? The American Dietetic Association and the World
Health Organization, among other groups, point out that vegan
diets provide everything we need and that, in fact, they cut out
a lot of the stuff that's horrible for us, thus making vegans
healthier. The diseases that are killing us are not deficiency
diseases. We're dying from heart disease, cancer, and stroke.
We're plagued with diabetes and obesity. You can be an unhealthful
vegan, but it's a heck of a lot easier to be an unhealthful
consumer of meat, dairy products, and/or eggs. Dr. T. Colin Campbell
argues that animal products are like tobacco - a little bit
probably won't hurt you, but why risk it? They're bad
for you. Of course, you can be a vegan, technically, and do nothing
but drink soda and eat French fries. One should make an effort
to eat a variety of foods and to be as healthful as possible.
I certainly encourage people to read books like Dr. Neal Barnard's
Eat for Life, Dr. John McDougall's The McDougall Program
for Women, and Becoming Vegan, by Vesanto Melina and Brenda Davis.
Wasn't Hitler a vegetarian?
No. People who ask this have fallen victim to NAZI propaganda
that wanted to frame Hitler as an ascetic, focused only on the
needs of the German people. There is ample documentation of his
meat-eating. Even if he had been a vegetarian, this would be a
absurd argument against ethical vegetarianism, because even if
he had he been a vegetarian, it would clearly not have been for
ethical reasons. To compare Hitler to Gandhi or Schweitzer is
really quite bizarre. For more information on this topic, we recommend
the book Hitler: Neither Vegetarian nor Animal Lover
by Rynn Berry, available here.
I'm a vegan, and I am interested in being more effective
and more active. What can I do? PETA has, at GoVeg.com,
a list of more than 20 things, from the very easy to the more
involved, that people can do, and I encourage people to check
it out and to let me know if we've neglected anything. Rather
than picking a few of them, let me just make a few quick comments
about activism. First off, in life, some sort of activism is a
duty: Consider the Golden Rule. If you were starving in Central
America or suffering on a factory farm or slaughterhouse, you
would want people to speak up for you, to do whatever they could
to lessen your suffering. There are a lot of problems in the world,
and all of us should be either giving money or devoting a significant
portion of our time to making the world a more compassionate place.
Second, we also have a duty to be active in a way that is as effective
as possible. Again, regardless of our chosen issue, we need to
evaluate the most effective means of communicating for a better
world.
For me, this latter point includes trying not to make veganism
seem like some horribly difficult diet. I don't push issues
like honey or hidden ingredients, because getting someone to eliminate
the obvious animal products will eliminate 99 percent of their
support for suffering. Generally, they'll come around on
issues like honey and hidden whey or casein or whatever. The vegan
issue is new enough for people, without making it seem like a
chore. I also try to put into practice the principles of Dale
Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People. This
book has probably been read by every corporate executive in the
country. If it can be used to make money, it can be used to make
vegans.
Please do check out GoVeg.com
and explore some of the books that are recommended and some of
the suggestions in the link entitled, "Great Ways to Promote
Vegetarianism." There are great ideas there for everyone,
and all of us should strive to do as much as we can to alleviate
the suffering of animals who have no voice and can't work
in their own behalf.
Thanks so much for caring enough to listen through this recording.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said that one of the great
tragedies of history is that so many people fail to remain awake
through great periods of social change. I'm convinced that
we're in one of those periods.
Thanks very much for remaining awake.
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