The Omnivore's Underworld

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Edited by CJ Tointon

These days, it seems that as soon as one brings up the subject of "Animal Welfare", be it 'pets', animals used as research 'tools', for food, for shoe leather or performing dolphins;  there are immediately hundreds of accusatory fingers pointing, asking "Why are you supporting any of this?"

None of the great variety of 'animal uses' are justifiable.  Some are less desirable than others.  If you pick the worst, say, the caging of hens, you find a 'second-worst', in the slaughtering of free range hens that have become no longer productive.  There’s an ugly aspect to all animal-use and usually an ugly end to every domesticated animal's life.  It's impossible to deny the cruelty involved in 'animal usage', yet most people can't imagine not using animals when they want to improve the quality of their lives.  They live in a sort of 'Underworld' from which there seems to be no escape.  One might not want to be associated with exploitation and cruelty, so one might make a small gesture of compassion by 'giving something up', to show ourselves that we aren't locked in like everyone else.  But therein lies the biggest problem.

Once you try to escape this Underworld, you are confronted by an extraordinary guard.  Like trying to defeat the Lernaean Hydra.  Strike off the head of Hydra and two more take its place!  Avoid one 'animal abuse' and logically you have to avoid another and another and another!  As soon as we start avoiding one type of exploitation there's no end to it.   

Unless you become Vegan, you can't escape.  If you give up meat, you must ask yourself why you shouldn't also give up fish.  Give up wearing leather shoes and you must question your use of milk.  There's cruelty behind all these products.  What starts as a statement of good intention brings on unexpected consequences.  One simple kiss may be a "come on" leading to intercourse, pregnancy and a life of unwanted commitment.  Similarly, a progression from one ethical decision (perhaps made in haste) leads towards a more comprehensive set of ethical decisions with which you can't keep pace.

This dilemma faces anyone who contemplates becoming vegan and who thinks ahead to all the changes that will have to be made to remain consistent.  It might be the reason why people don't want to open these particular flood gates.  It’s not so much a matter of wanting to do the 'right' thing, it’s more a matter of not wanting to be 'wrong', not wanting to appear foolish or not strong enough to develop one’s ethical decision base.

Maybe, you (along with everyone else) hates the thought of slaughterhouses.  The image of a beautiful bovine creature being forced into a killing chamber to have a bullet fired into its head, isn't a pretty picture.  You might hate the thought of imprisoning hens in cages or pigs in concrete pens.  But you also hate the thought of imposing a food restriction on yourself, where your favourite breakfast of bacon and eggs is no longer on the menu.

The more you know, the less comfortable you are, for in every corner of your life there is some instance of condoning animal cruelty.  And since that is unbearable, it follows that the less you know the more comfortable your life will be.  But we are brought up to believe that education expands the mind, knowledge leads to wisdom, kindness brings one closer to becoming a better person.  By burying our heads in the sand, we become victims of the worst of self-accusations and self-judgements.  So, is there any way out of this dilemma?

It's a fact of life that everyone has to 'make a buck'.  Everyone must find enough money to survive.  Some will go into the business of producing felt hats, but they have to skin rabbits for their pelts to make the hats.  Some have to get involved with killing cattle to make hamburgers.  There are thousands of other uses-of-animals chosen to make a living, each involving cruelty and animal slaughter.   And each in turn involves the thousands of customers who buy their product.  Customers, producers, manufacturers must be involved in killing to get the result they want.  And it’s this involvement in the 'Underworld of Death' from which there is no escape, unless you find another way to make a buck and don't spend it to support animal cruelty.  

One thing logically leads to another.  One can’t be a little bit guilty of involvement any more than one can be a little bit pregnant.  There’s always one first step that must be avoided altogether if we don’t want to lay ourselves open to the reasonable suggestions of:  “If you hate the killing of whales, how come you’re okay with the killing of cows"?  Or, "If you hate the idea of climate change, why do you support the huge carbon footprint involved in cattle farming?”


Unfortunately, there’s no half-way house.  It's sad that well-meaning lacto-ovo-vegetarians get tangled into wanting to be thought of as 'animal-lovers', while their love is conditional.  This stops them ever being able to have an effective voice for animals.  Unless you are Vegan, you can only ever be a 'welfare-ist', merely wanting an improvement for the animals' conditions of enslavement.