Denial

6.

In their use of animal foods, most people shelter in denial and protect themselves by only-doing-what-others-do. They practise same-behaviour, they turn a blind eye to the suffering of ‘food animals’. In a nutshell, this is the main obstacle facing the liberation of these animals. They shield themselves from hearing what Animal Rightists are saying. Those of us who are advocating rights for animals might try every angle to persuade people to abandon animal-foods. There are so many good arguments to choose from. We might expose the horrors, appeal to people’s sense of compassion, explain in detail why animal by-products involve cruelty, suggest attractive non-animal foods, emphasize the greenhouse implications of animal farming, but we reach relatively few. Most people are unwilling to step so boldly away from convention, especially if it means giving up their favourite foods. At best, they are afraid of the ‘deficiency’ of plant-based diets; at worst, they are in ‘atrocity-denial’ and playing dangerous mind games with themselves.

Maybe they realize the power of what we are saying but just try their best to ignore us. They may be afraid that if a break-through were made (in public acceptance of Animal Rights) it would spell the end of animal farming. That would mean no more meat and none of the thousands of animal-based commodities widely available today. In foreseeing this, people are inclined to vigorously defend their lifestyle and do whatever is necessary to guarantee their favourite food supplies. More importantly, they’ll resist everything we are saying about ‘atrocity’, which is probably why people pre-emptively shy away from discussing anything to do with animals (that are used for food).