AR and vegetarianism

[Guest guest]

I was glad to see the discussion about animal rights v. welfare, because

many people decide to become vegetarians or vegans for ethical reasons. The roles

of PeTA and HSUS have indeed been both good and not so good. I couldn’t

agree more with Cheyenne that the major problem with the welfarist

approach is that it acknowledges the property status of animals in exchange for

trivial concessions. That is the equivalent of surrendering the war to get back

a little land. Gary Francione and Lee Hall are much more representative of the

AR movement than Peter Singer and his ilk, in my opinion.

 

I think the answer to why many of us are ambivalent about the big

animal-related organizations is that while they may indeed sell out the animals

in some instances, they are in other instances strong advocates – and they

can get things done because of their size and impact. Without them we would

have very little chance to have as much impact on as many people, and

eventually it is changing people that will change the way animals are thought

of and treated.

 

Shannon, you

wrote: “People will always eat meat, wear leather, fur, attend animal

" entertainment " events, and there will probably always be

experimentation in labs.” I disagree, and in my own work I’ve seen progress

in all these areas. Many kinds of research no longer use animals, all but a

handful of medical schools have stopped using animals to teach students, cities

around the country are banning circuses, cockfighting is illegal in every state

except Louisiana, many big designers have eliminated fur

from their lines, and so on. I think meat-eating will be the last to go, and it

may take meat-related health disasters like the blossoming threats of avian

flu, mad cow (which likely is a cause of many cases of Alzheimer disease), and

tainted foods for that to occur.

 

If those fighting against slavery, suppression of women, child labor,

racist laws, and gay-lesbian rights felt that these things would always be

there, where would we be today? It isn’t happening as quickly as we’d

like, but it is happening. And the most encouraging aspect may be that each

generation is better than the last in the way it views non-human animals.

 

Vegetarianism and animal-friendly behaviors go hand in hand, even if

just consequence rather than intent. For me, the clearest and most definitive

way to view our relationship with animals is to do just one thing: stop viewing

them as property. If you do that, everything else becomes a pretty easy

decision.

 

JJP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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