705:
If you are an animal eater, you support animal
cruelty, whether you like it or not! If one is at all concerned, then one has
to balance personal wants against the cost to the animals themselves. If we
don’t care about the feelings of these animals then it’s likely we shouldn’t be
trusted around any animals at all, since the use and abuse of them is always
going to be too tempting. We’re always going to be considering our own
interests before theirs. Even the most beloved companion animals at home may
prove this point. When their medical treatment incurs high veterinary bills
some can’t pay and some can but won’t, and have their animals’ lives brought to
an early end for their own convenience.
Perhaps
it’s here that we’re most sorely tested – the animal we say we love presents us
with a difficult choice between the outlay of a considerable sum of money and
the saving of the beloved animal’s life. For some it will always be compassion
that decides. For others even the kenneling costs whilst away on holiday will convince
them to have their animal put down, to be replaced by another on their return.
And if this can apply to those we call ‘companion animals’, then when it comes
to those animals that are used for food, they are entirely beyond our consideration.
We allow ourselves to feel no
responsibility for what happens to them. As long as we don’t know too much
about their living conditions or the manner of their death, we can enjoy the
‘benefit’ of them. Since almost everybody eats them, there’s hardly anyone left
to put pressure on Society to change.
These
farmed, faceless animals are not only very available for food (when dead), but
as everyone knows, their bodies are so tasty to eat and a good source of
protein. Surely, we might argue, we’d be mad not to accept Nature’s generous
bounty? Since no animal can match a human’s strength or brain power, we know
there’s no danger of them fighting back. They make easy prey for us, and once
we’ve enslaved them, they become rather like food-on-tap. We control their
lives and the timing of their deaths, and therefore make efficient use of them,
to the fullest extent. Most people have never considered the possibility that
this traditional use of animals is wrong.
Those
of us who are more kindly disposed towards animals must avoid all animal food.
It doesn’t mean we will starve or become ill by not eating meat or animal
by-products.
Up
until the middle of the last century, it was believed that animal protein was (nutritionally)
essential; without meat our health would be compromised; we’d become anaemic,
lack physical and mental energy and our children would sicken. By the second
half of the twentieth century this belief was exploded by a few brave people
who experimented with avoiding all animal protein, finding that the human body
actually thrived on a plant-based diet. From that point on, everything began to
change for those who adopted a vegan diet; there was no danger to our health by
not eating animals. Indeed, we were at last realising that humans do not need
to depend on animals for anything - transport, clothing, entertainment or food.
We would be able to regard animals as sovereign, irreplaceable individuals and
allow them to live out their lives without human interference. And yet as
free-willed human beings, we still had the ‘choice’ and it seemed that for the
overwhelming majority, making use of animals was still too tempting to give up.
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