Here's something I posted on the VivaVegie board, an open forum run by a local
vegetarian group:
. The issue brought up was that a person who ate tunafish still considered himself a vegetarian. The question
of dolphins being caught in tuna fishing nets was then brought up, and I was answering these previous posts, and added an
issue of my own (here's where the post begins):
I grew up thinking a vegetarian diet included fish. I
believe this was partly because of the pre-VaticanII Catholic Church's rules at the time: You could'nt eat meat on Friday,
but you were allowed to eat fish.(The rule still applies to Fridays during lent-Ash Wednesday until Easter). I'm not sure,
but I believe this goes back to Jesus' alleged diet: in the Bible, there are instances of Him eating fish, but nothing specifically
mentioning any other meat. : And as for dolphins being considered "superior" to tuna, isn't that an example of what I've been
saying all along? I'll give you a contemporary example: In the suburbs, where I live, we've been having a problem with the
Canadian geese population; They have stopped their regular migration from Canada to South America, and for the most part have
been settling, breeding, and taking up permanent residence in our public parks, ponds, reservoirs and even golf courses-any
place that is fairly spacious and is not too far from water. They are also extremely beautiful birds. A similar problem has
hit the semi-rural areas with deer. Nearby residents would OK almost any solution: But town boards(most of whose, members,
if statistics hold true, are meat eaters) have voted down almost every solution proposed (Finally, some boards did grudgingly
allow experiments in sterilizing the deer with darts, but even if if it were to be used on a large scale, it would take years
to see results. A universal success could easily become a universal failure, as deer from the rural areas would continue to
try to migrate and would find room to live,plenty of food and...less deer). The same with the geese if the experiment was
tried with them. But...if the overpopulating troublemakers were mice, rats, cockroaches,or maybe even squirrels or raccoons
do you think ANY solution, with the exception of indiscriminate shooting or poisoning that could harm people or more "acceptable"
birds and mammals, would be rejected? On the contrary, bring on the licenced sharpshooters, discreetly placed, specific poisons,
and exterminators use humane traps but promptly drown their victims. Again, what can I do, Orwell said it better than I can
(even though he probably never meant to be taken literally): "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than
others".
So, your {writer} has a social conscience or do you call that a sense of humor-weird as it is!)! Actually,
I was just doing something I do often with people who take impossible positions, such as vegans: baiting; that is, bringing
them to the place where they would have to defend a ridiculous statement. But in this case, the situations about the deer
and the geese are real ones, and really gave me something to think about: oh well... Here’s something I started to write
in answer to my old essay/post (Above)
When sharing the above document, I came upon the idea that this kind of veganism is a kind of picture of
racism. and it reminded me of another vegan response of mine, on the PETA site. where someone was saying that bees were being
"exploited" by people who take their honey. I responded(this was a regular article, not a message board, and I didn't save
a copy) about other insects, and the person, in a word, caved (His/her original article stands, but on a link did answer this
and some similar articles with "yes, sometims humans do come first" especially about fleas, about lice etc.
OK, The racism analogy analogy is a bit much, but I (writing this more than a year later;more like two),
have come up with an idea that could be constructive, in that it would ease suffering of animals that are to be slaughtered
(most vegans and vegetarians agree that universal adoption of their position would kill more animals than it would save.
Explain that ? Here goes!
What about the traditional "food" animals, being raised right now? If they are suddenly rendered useless
as food (remember: everyone now is a vegan, or at least, a vegetarian); what would their owners do? They have bought land,
food, necessary equipment-with the understanding that the money would be made back, by selling these animals to slaughterhouses.
But, all of a sudden, no one's buying meat! Most of these animals have no other use-and they've been bred generations
from "the wiild". They could never survive on their own. The farmers and ranchers would ave enough trouble keeping
themselves alive, let alone several large, hungry animals. Some vegan groups might "adopt" some of them, but who has
the money, time, inclination, to take them all in?
At one time, PETA, urging its readers to "go Veg", used the idea that not everyone would turn vegetarian
overnight, so these new proselytes need not let their consciences be bothered. But still, militant vegans call meat
eaters "murderers" and other unkind epithets. That's not rigteousness; that's self-righteousness!
Oh yeah, I had a constructive idea...Oh, here it is:
One of the concerns shared by vegans and meat-eaters is treatment of animals, both on "factory farms" and
in slaughterhouses that use questionable methods, that also might be unsanitary:
So, why don't Animal Rights groups, like PETA, use recruiting techniques that aren't so militant?
Meat eaters, for the most part, don't like to see animals tortured, and want animals to have the best lives possible, even
if it's to end in a slaughterhouse! At least, that's what I've always thought. As do most of my meat-eating friends.
But no one likes to have graphic photos pressed in their faces, and be called "murderers" and "torturers"
if they don't happen to agree witha certain lifestyle!
In short, if meat-eaters were accepted as "animal rights advocates", they might be taken more seriously
by those whohave power to improve life for animals-everywhere!
