Not all vegans base their abstinence on that moral position. My friend himself is a vegan, but for the reason that it is healthier not to eat meat. And I am not a practicing vegan at all. My position is "purely philosophical" and, I suppose, in some way hypocritical (even though I freely admit it).
One thing that plays into my "philosophical veganism" is the concept of compassion as presented in the popular book How to Want What You Have, by Timothy Miller, which I read some years ago. Miller doesn't talk about compassion (so far as I remember) with respect to animals other than humans, but I found it impossible, from a broadly philosophical and moral viewpoint, not to apply it to all living creatures. Miller's concept relative to humans is that one person isn't any more derserving than the next person. He recommends that the principle of compassion guide our moral choices, the way we treat other people.
Obviously, that's a profoundly Gandhian or Jesus Christian point of view. Meekness. One doesn't have to "believe in God" to find the concept powerfully attractive, as I do. My political philosophy is grounded in the belief. This explains why I so loathe the George Bushes of the world (overprivileged, underdeserving), why I am a "liberal," why I vote "for the common good" rather than to benefit my own pocketbook, why I am so critical of "popular [materialistic] culture"—perhaps even why I am critical of sports fanaticism.I just wanted to put this out there, while I'm contemplating it anew. Thank you, my old friend.
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- I toyed with titling this post more simply just "Eating animals: Is it humane?," but I realized that would include cannibalism, which I trust we need not get into.
PBS covered an Iowan grain and pig farmer who lost all in the recent flood. His pigs all died: 3600 of them. He told how when the levee broke he tried to let the pigs out of the barn, so at least they could fend for themselves. But they were terrified and would turn right around and reenter, so he finally gave up and fled for his own life. Days later he and wife and PBS came by boat to survey the damage. Dead pigs everywhere, with feet sticking in the air.
ReplyDeleteBut he found later that a few hundred had survived….some on site, some swept away and marooned. He returned with barge to haul them on deck. But they were too frantic to cooperate and the ones he retrieved were in bad shape, having spent days in diesel & chemically tainted water. He and the animal rescue people decided the only humane thing to do was to put them down. It was the hardest thing he’d ever done in his life, he told the camera.
Though he grew grains, it was raising pigs that brought him pleasure. You could see the story tore him up as he was telling it. Yet all of the pigs would have been slaughtered for food.
A curious relationship we have with the animals.
Thanks for the anecdote, Tom. Indeed curious that the farmer derived such personal pleasure from raising pigs...for slaughter.
ReplyDeleteI wonder whether jailers who befriend Death Row inmates (if there are any such jailers) have a similar experience.
Or serial killers who "love" their victims before the coup de grâce...?
Of course other humans are not just any animals...which makes me realize that perhaps you don't think of "the animals" as "the other (i.e., non-human) animals"...?
When I was titling this post, I toyed with simply phrasing it "Eating animals...," but I realized that would include cannibalism, and I didn't want to get into that.
I doubt the Iowan farmer looked at it that way. I suspect he was genuinely fond of his pigs, but, after all, they were raised for food. Assuming they were raised humanely, (it certainly sounds as if they were in his case)I doubt he compared himself to the nefarious persons you liken him to.
ReplyDeleteRight or wrong, your ideas about morality and eating animals are well ahead of their time. And I think they are uniquely American....Western, anyway.
I assume that the Iowa farmer was indeed genuinely fond of the pigs and simply blotted out of his consciousness that he was shepherding them toward their being shipped off for the butcher. (Sometimes I am overcome by great sadness when I allow myself to dwell on the fact that our beloved poodle, who by dog years is aging much faster than we are, will probably precede us in death.)
ReplyDeleteI didn't mean to "liken" the farmer to the jailer or serial killer (and thought I phrased it carefully enough to avoid that inference). I genuinely wondered at the possible parallels. Such wonder is probably more stimulating for the mind than trying to solve a Sudoku puzzle.
If I am ahead of our time, then the ethical vegans who actually practice their belief are even farther ahead. I have of course told you privately that I don't practice because this ethical principle is trumped by another (one having to do with being married to a meat eater).
I was reminded by the Wikipedia article about Gandhi that I linked to that he was a vegetarian. So far as I know, Jesus wasn't. I guess the account of his casting someone's demons out and causing them to take up residence in some pigs indicates that he didn't have the same compassion for pigs as he did for his fellow humans. Of course, I don't know why Gandhi didn't eat meat. My friend is a "health vegan," I'm a [philosophical; i.e., non-practicing] "ethical vegan."
We are going to a barbecue party this evening (put on by the man who heads the university). I have decided to forgo the eating of pork as a sort of act of solidarity with the pigs of the world...I guess a greater act would be to donate an arm or a leg to the feast....