An Argument for Vegetarianism

With the idea of a moose-hunting, wolf-killing, good ol’ gal in the White House, I’d like to discuss why I’m a vegetarian.  There are a lot of reasons that I’ve done it personally, but let me first say that I’m not against the idea of eating meat itself.  We are carnivores by evolutionary design and if I went out and hunted my own food, I would eat meat.  

My objection to eating meat in America comes from three different categories: inhumane treatment, ecology, and health, in that order.  I’ll start with the first reason as it’s the most compelling, for me anyway, and possibly write about the other two in later posts.

We’re often regaled with images of happy chickens and cows giving thumbs up to consumers from the food packages and commercials.  Pictures of red-roofed buildings and rolling fields are most commonly associated with meat-production.  These images have burrowed their way so deeply into our conscious thought about meat, that most don’t take the time to find out what is actually going on.

The truth is that factory farms supplanted the family farm long ago, where animals were treated with respect and care, rather than as units of production.  Now, they are used as means to an end with no regard for their suffering.  Cows, pigs, chickens, and turkeys are all mistreated in the name of efficiency.  They are deprived of sunlight,social contact, and the ability to turn around.  Lame and dying animals are oftentimes not recognized among the smaller animals and abused and killed violently among the larger.  

As business commodities, CEOs consider them as production units and factor their deaths into the bottom line.  Workers at the lowest level obviously see them as things as well rather than living, breathing creatures and are desensitized to their suffering.  Where early ranchers felt connections, however utilitarian, to their animals, these people spend so little time with the creatures that they can form no bonds whatsoever.  Because of this, animals raised for food are treated callously at all levels of production, from breeding, to raising, to slaughter.

To illustrate my point, I’m including some videos I’ve found on YouTube among the many, many videos of investigations done into what really goes on in factory farms and slaughterhouses.  Some of them also address the question of health concerns in meat, as well.

WARNING!!  These videos are graphic and disturbing.  Please watch at your own discretion.

Factory Farming:

Cows:

Pigs:

Even if the animals are raised with perfect humanity, the slaughtering process itself is designed for maximum efficiency, not maximum kindness.  The video below is from a BBC investigation into slaughterhouses.  The actual content is very short, but extremely disturbing, and a far cry from the vision of peaceful death that we’re led to believe.