Posts tagged ‘Vegan’
Dogs on the dinner plate…
Trying to explain to people that there is no difference between killing this animal or that, for food or for “sport,” can sometimes be excruciatingly frustrating.
Who deserves the priority of living – cows, dogs, coyotes? Well, we have to kill the cows because steak tastes good, and we have to kill the coyotes so they don’t kill the cows; but we certainly can’t kill dogs! If they have their own department store for food, fun, and fashion, we certainly can’t kill them.
Lee Won-bok understands the challenges of changing peoples minds. We meet Lee Won-bok in a LA Times article. He is a 45-year old animal rights activist who stages graphic photo displays to protest the use of dogs for food. The images show dogs kept in cages, hanged and butchered, and the meat that is prepared for market. Won-bok knows the images are hard to look at, and that is precisely his point. He wants to show the “harsh treatment of an animal that many South Koreans now view as companions, not cuisine.”
Koreans have eaten dogs for centuries and, for years foreign advocates have protested the practice. But the Koreans dismissed these protests as “unwanted opinions of outsiders.” Now that the country has adopted more of the Western culture, there are more “pet” owners than ever. And Won-bok wants people to know what is going on with the dogs.
“People don’t comprehend the suffering these dogs endure…they may vaguely realize that people still eat dogs. But they need to know what happens to the animals.”
And, he remains optimistic saying, “South Koreans (are starting to) question their cultural traditions.” But not all South Koreans.
The cuisine remains popular among some government officials. Cham Lee, known to enjoy dog dishes, is director of the Korean Tourism Organization. Ironically, he also raises Korean Jindo dogs as companion animals. Lee even had a private wine and dog-tasting seminar, deciding that dog goes best with a light Shiraz or Riesling. Lee was criticized for the tasting.
Lee had this to say, “Parisians can eat horse meat because France is considered high culture. But South Korea gets no such pass. Westerners eat one type of animal and tell the world they can’t eat another. I say, if you eat animals, you eat animals.”
And, I’d have to agree with him on that one point (and one point only). If you eat animals, you eat animals – it doesn’t matter which species you choose. We must stop placing animals into moral categories and making excuses for the human palate. All sentient life deserves better.
Won-bok has pledged to campaign for the dogs, exposing the cruel conditions the dogs endure, until dog-eating ends in his country.
via latimes.com
Vegans could learn from Gay Rights Movement?
In an interesting new article, Sherry F. Colb discusses the animal rights movements as compared to the gay rights movement. It’s a fascinating look at the similarities of each and what we can learn from both.
Here’s a snippet:
“The first thing to note is that there is a risk in analogizing the struggle for gay rights with the struggle for animal rights. The danger that concerns me is not, as some might think, that of offending people. People were (and some continue to be) offended by comparisons between struggles against racial oppression and struggles against homophobia, but it is precisely the resistance to an unfamiliar claim (especially a claim that implicates one’s own behavior) that makes it seem “offensive.”
If inflicting terrible suffering and death on nonhuman animals who can feel pleasure, pain, and a wide range of emotions represents a real harm – and most people acknowledge, at some level, that it does – then no one should be offended by the suggestion that this harm must stop, just as other harms, once taken for granted as permissible, are now almost universally condemned.
The risk, though, is that of missing the real connection. The proper analogue to a gay person seeking gay rights is not a nonhuman animal, for the latter is not able to seek justice for herself (except by appearing, occasionally, in the public consciousness and awakening rare pangs of conscience and empathy). The proper analogue to the gay person struggling for gay rights is, instead, the vegan struggling for animal rights.
When I use the word “animal rights” here, I mean something very basic – an entitlement to have one’s interests seriously considered in people’s decision-making process. No one, to my knowledge, is advocating that nonhuman animals be permitted to vote, hold public office, or receive scholarships to state colleges, any more than one would advocate similar entitlements for a three-year-old human. But if a being’s interests are taken seriously, then surely one may not inflict torture, misery, and slaughter on that being simply to satisfy one’s culinary and fashion preferences.”
The first thing that strikes me about Colb’s article is her attention to the opposition. She purposefully makes it clear who she is speaking about, and debunks some of the more ridiculous rebuttals (when the opponent is downplaying the animals right to life by means of human domination) that non-vegans will attempt to use during discussions with vegans. It’s unfortunately necessary, but highly refreshing.
Armchairs, Vegans, and Carbon Footprints
“I truly believe that anyone who supports the cruelty and/or death of these animals is either in denial or just chooses to ignore their own unethical behavior.”
“The animal industries want everyone to believe that vegans want to digress into primitive technology. This simply is not the case. Indeed animal agriculture will keep us in yesterdays inefficient and unhealthy doomed practices.”
“A very wise gentleman, Pythagoras, had this to say: ‘The earth affords a lavish supply of riches, of innocent foods, and offers you banquets that involve no bloodshed or slaughter; only beasts satisfy their hunger with flesh, and not even all of those, because horses, cattle, and sheep live on grass. As long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seeds of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.’”
“There is no way of consuming any animal product if you want to be ethical. If we believe that it’s morally wrong to harm innocent beings, if we claim that we mustn’t inflict unnecessary suffering, then we have to live as vegans. We cannot deny that.”
“The reality is that we massacre millions of intelligent and social animals with genetic code more similar than different to our own.”
These are just some of the quotes I pulled from the comment section of the article, “On Armchairs and Vegans.” Be sure to read it, along with the comments. You can read the original article and comments here.
I’m interested to hear what ya’ll think.
via ieet.org