August
2000
Vegetarian
Advocate: What's Animal Abuse?
By
Jack Rosenberger
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Meet
Sallie Tisdale, respected author and accomplice to murder. Tisdale
has
written a book titled The Best Thing I Ever Ate: The Secret of
Food,
and People magazine recently devoted two pages to a profile of
Tisdale,
one page of which was a Q & A session. People’s first question
(surprise!) was "Do you eat meat?" Here’s Tisdale’s
reply:
"Occasionally, I have an appetite for it. Growing up, we ate meat
not just at dinner, but three times a day. I became a complete vegetarian
for many years, but now I’m not afraid to admit that I like meat.
I don’t think it’s somehow better to eat a chicken than a
cow. Meat is killing, and we just have to be honest about that. The
distinction I make is how the animal is treated. I won’t eat veal,
or any food that requires an animal to be abused in order to produce
it—like pate made from geese that are force-fed. I feel the same
about animals that are supposed to be cooked alive, like lobster. And
I buy a lot of locally grown, organically fed, free-range meat and eggs." (No
emphasis added.)
Tisdale’s candor—"Meat is killing"—is unusual,
for few carnivores are honest enough to publicly admit their choice
of diet requires that animals be killed. However, the second half of
Tisdale’s "Meat is killing" sentence ("and we just
have to be honest about that") seems to imply that Tisdale believes
if she is honest about farmed animals being killed for their flesh,
being a carnivore is okay. Of course, Tisdale’s "honesty"
doesn’t lessen the suffering and pain farmed animals endure during
their confinement, during their transportation to the slaughterhouse,
and during their time on the slaughterhouse’s killing floor by
a single iota.
Also, Tisdale’s statements "I won’t eat...any food that
requires an animal to be abused in order to produce it" and "I
buy a lot of locally grown, organically fed, free-range meat and eggs"
implies that organically fed, free-range farmed animals aren’t
abused. So, do they lead care-free, pampered lives down on the farm,
or has Tisdale emotionally and intellectually shut down?
For a different point of view, I interviewed People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals spokesman Bruce Friedrich, who has visited about
a dozen free-range dairy cow farms and approximately 25 free-range
chicken
farms. Are free-range animal farms better than factory farms? "They’re
generally better, but that’s not saying much," says Friedrich.
"They’re still miserable hellholes."
The term "organically fed" has little relevance with how a
farmed animal is treated, says Friedrich. The term "free-range"
remains legally undefined, says Friedrich, "so anyone, including
[Frank] Perdue, could claim their chickens are free-range."
Friedrich agreed that free-range egg-laying hens enjoy a better existence
than battery-cage hens. However, farms where free-range chickens are
raised for their flesh are often "not at all different than factory
farms," says Friedrich. "The animals are crammed inside large,
feces-ridden, urine-saturated buildings. If cats and dogs were treated
like these animals are, the operators would go to prison."
One last remark regarding Tisdale’s curious belief system: She
objects to the most obvious types of egregious animal treatment, such
as force-feeding a goose. That, she says, is bad. But killing a goose
is okay. Have you ever heard an intelligent, reasonable person say such
things about human animals? I can’t imagine a parent saying, "It
was okay for the TV repairman to murder my son, but it was not okay
for the TV repairman to rape my son." Kinda loopy, huh?
What’s Animal Abuse?
The June 19th issue of People not only ran the interview with Tisdale
but also featured Stephanie LaFarge, a psychologist for the American
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, who has treated 34
persons who have abused animals. LaFarge, the article says, is "the
country’s first psychologist to specialize in court-mandated animal
abuse counseling."
The three-page article dwells heavily upon LaFarge’s personal and
professional lives, and concludes with her saying, "We need to
consider the animal’s point of view, and I hope that some day
all of us will."
Despite the article’s emphasis on personal responsibility, animal
abuse, and LaFarge’s private life, it never once mentioned her
diet. I called LaFarge at the ASPCA, introduced myself as the author
of this column, and began fielding questions. LaFarge said People had
never asked about her diet. So I did. "I had been a vegetarian
for thirty years, but during the last four years I’ve eaten some
meat," says LaFarge, 62. Why? "Sometimes I find myself in
a social situation where a person has gone to great lengths to prepare
a meat dish, and I will eat the meat or avoid it." Do you think
the way the vast majority of farmed animals are treated constitutes
animal abuse? "Yes, it’s abusive to animals."
LaFarge said she would have tried to keep vegetarianism out of the
article if People had asked about her diet because vegetarianism is
a political
issue at the ASPCA. LaFarge urged me to call Valerie Angeli, the ASPCA’s
public information manager, for more information about the ASPCA’s
policy on vegetarianism.
"The ASPCA advocates the humane treatment and the humane slaughter
of farm animals," says Angeli (who is a vegetarian). As for vegetarianism,
Angeli says, "The ASPCA promotes choice." Which means the
ASPCA serves meat at its social functions.
Like People magazine, the ASPCA offers a narrow vision of what constitutes
animal abuse. There are socially unacceptable forms of animal abuse
(killing a brother’s pet pigeons because you’re angry at him)
and socially acceptable forms of animal abuse (killing billions of chickens,
cows, pigs and other farm animals each year because you’re accustomed
to eating their flesh).
Angeli said the ASPCA regularly receives letters from children who
want to know about a vegetarian diet and it refers them to vegetarian
organizations. "But we are an animal welfare organization, not an animal rights
one," says Angeli. "Companion animals are our focus, but
we care very much about the treatment of farm animals."
To encourage the ASPCA to care more and to advocate a vegetarian diet,
write; Larry Hawk, President, ASPCA, 424 E. 92 St., New York, NY 10128;
(212) 876-7700; larryh@aspca.org.
FYI: Hawk isn’t a vegetarian.
Audubon Slights Vegetarianism
Environmentally speaking, how important is a vegetarian diet? Not
very, says Audubon, the magazine of the National Audubon Society. An
environmental buddy recently gave me a copy of Audubon’s November-December
1999 issue, the cover of which promotes "39 Things You Can Do
For Our Planet." A vegetarian diet barely makes the list, appearing
as resolution 35. Titled "Eat Beans," it states: "A
vegetarian diet is much easier on the planet than one that’s
heavy in animal products. Nearly half the water consumed in this
country and 70 percent
of the grain grown is used for livestock, mostly cattle. It takes almost
16 pounds of grass and grain to produce one pound of beef. If the land
on which grain is grown were used to grow, say, black beans instead,
it would generate 10 to 20 times as much protein."
To give you an idea of Audubon’s priorities, resolution 10 is titled
"Toot Your Horn" and urges "Buy a license plate that
donates money to wildlife programs in your state. The plate also sends
a conservation message to other drivers. Contact your Division of Motor
Vehicles." And if you don’t own a car, or are too young or
too old to drive...
Contact: Lisa Gosselin, Editor-in-Chief, Audubon, 700 Broadway, New
York, NY 10003; (212) 979-3000.
