Over a year ago I was ambushed two days before 4th of July with a video e-mailed by my girlfriend's co-worker called "Earthlings". It's a fairly comprehensive documentary about how people make use of and abuse animals in a variety of ways. As an avowed eater of animals I normally would steer clear of this sort of thing, but it caught me at a weak moment. I had never seen video footage of what happens to animals during testing, the "production" of clothing, or in factory farms before and I wound up having surprisingly strong negative reaction despite my desperate attempts to forget all about it and shove it back down into the deep dark memory hole of denial.
I couldn't though. I felt sick from the pork chops I had just had earlier for dinner. My conscience was weighed down heavily as I tried to make sense of the extremely violent methods used by those who produce the meat on my plate three times a day. Could it be justified? I turned to my girlfriend and could see clearly she had a similar reaction. Her eyes communicated that something had to be done. We couldn't just ignore what we'd seen and be the same again. I made a frantic attempt to whitewash it away. It couldn't be that bad, I said. Animals had always been used. Humans were carnivores. We had to eat meat otherwise we'd die from lack of protein! Of course, I have vegetarian friends who had lived fine for years, but I was certain that I couldn't, because... uh, bacon. And because the carne asada at Tommy's on Geary. And I have a leather jacket that fits too good to give up. And two months ago I had a filet mignon at Harris' served between two huge slabs of foie gras and I loved and savored it in all its delicious wrongness. I knew it was wrong, but I did it anyway. I'm from Michigan. I can't be a vegetarian. There were chicken legs in the fridge waiting to be barbequed on the 4th for fucksake!
(Here's the trailer to the documentary if you'd like to get an brief idea of what sent this mid-western meat-eater into a philosophical dilemma. Not for the faint of heart.)
http://www.youtube.com/...
The following day I woke up and tried to shake it off, but the shadow hung over me. My last meal of meat was a lunch of hamburger macaroni and cheese, which I had two bites of before deciding to throw it away. The delusion was gone. It was like suddenly waking up and finding out everything was a carefully constructed advertising lie and in the real world animal cruelty had fundamentally tainted everything from the mascara you put on your eyelashes to the shoes you put on your feet to the chemicals that clean your oven. Who needs the Matrix when you have this? Animals are being tortured and killed in the most horrible ways for the most trivial reasons throughout the world in dystopian factories and labs every second of every day in one long, never-ending nightmare scene. Those are facts I just couldn't walk around with and ignore. You know when something is morally wrong. You don't need religion to tell you that. You feel it in your bones.
What could I do about it? First, I decided to turn my back on the animal abuse and not participate in it. I didn't feel like eating meat anymore, so a boycott was easy. The fear that not having meat in my diet wasn't the heartbreaking loss I thought it would be. I found that after years of rotating the same beef, chicken, pork, etc. dishes it was refreshing to not eat the same old thing and learn all new recipes. Not buying animal-based clothing and using cruelty-free products was a little more tricky. Sometimes you want an item of clothing or a product you can't have. Over time I'm becoming more accustomed to not getting precisely what I want. Beyond that, I try to inform folks when the subject comes up without getting all preachy about it and found many to be surprisingly open to at least partially giving up meat (for health reasons, naturally). I've read a up bit on animal rights to make sure I know what I'm talking about from a factual perspective, not just an emotional one. I get the sense from those I've spoken to that people know inherently what we do to animals is wrong although they need to be approached softly about it otherwise they snap into a defensive mode where they decide I'm self-righteously judging them. Or they make off-color jokes as a deflection. I hesitate to evangelize for this reason, but I have the ghost of Edmund Burke in my head reminding me constantly that
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing". So here I am a year later doing something. If nothing else, drawing your attention to an issue you probably don't think about, know about, or may wave off as unimportant to anyone but the radical fringe. For me though, it ranks as the central moral challenge of our time.
I'd like to have a discussion about animal rights if any of you are inclined. Apart from VL Baker's diaries I haven't seen too much around here touching on the subject and I'm very interested to hear what this community thinks - even if you believe this is all utter bullshit or fertile ground to troll. Fire away.
"I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other when they came in contact with the more civilized."
HENRY DAVID THOREAU
Here are some videos that put what I'm referring to into context. If you think I'm getting worked up over nothing I encourage you to at least watch one or two before commenting. Several of these expose harsh factory farm conditions, so be prepared. It's not pretty.
Battery cages for hens laying eggs
https://www.youtube.com/...
Butterball turkey farm
https://www.youtube.com/...
Pigs in gestation crates
https://www.youtube.com/...
Animal testing
https://www.youtube.com/...
Fur farms in China (warning: very graphic)
https://www.youtube.com/...
Shark finning
https://www.youtube.com/...
Circus training
http://www.youtube.com/...