What an extraordinary dilemma JC has created for me. At times I am
still consumed by an almost overwhelming temptation to indulge myself
in the consumption of one of my fellow animals. Feasting on sentient
beings that had endured tortured, miserable existences (existences that
were mere warm-ups for the sheer savagery that awaited them in the
slaughterhouse) was one of my favorite pastimes.
So the question is, do I continue denying myself the sublime pleasure
of dining on animal tissue in order to appease my conscience, or do I
embrace JC’s brilliant justification of meat consumption and satiate my
hunger with a thick rare burger drowned in Heinz?
Allow me to examine and dissect some of JC’s eloquent and illuminating conclusions:
JC: “I can’t be held responsible for how turkeys or any animals
are slaughtered. I’m never going to give up meat or fish or fowl, as
our diet does require us to have protein and other nutrients that we
receive from these products and I and many others enjoy eating them.”
So forget the notion of the banality of evil. As a consumer, even if I
eat meat I am absolved of ALL responsibility for the unimaginable
horrors the producers inflict upon factory-farmed animals from “cradle
to grave.”
For Christ’s sake! I’ve been subsisting for over a year without said
“protein and other nutrients” from meat! I am a miracle of modern
science!
And I find it nearly impossible to disagree with JC’s statement that “I
and many others enjoy eating them.” (The “them” being animals of
course— I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy eating meat). As I
was growing up my mother frequently confronted me with the question,
“If everyone else jumped off a bridge would you do it too?” Obviously
the “correct” response was “no.” Sorry, Mom, but JC’s lemming logic is
a hell of a lot more enticing than going against the grain and “doing
the right thing.” Screw that—I’ll have the porterhouse, please!
JC: “People have to eat and the bulk of their protein comes from
animal sources. They have been doing it since the cave man and it isn’t
going to stop anytime soon. Tofu just doesn’t cut it for most people as
a meat substitute, nor those grotesque meat imitations made from veggie
products and then shaped into meat like looking products.”
Now that is a truly impenetrable Maginot Line of reasoning. I can’t
begin to argue with the assertion that people have to eat. And the bulk
of my protein did indeed come from animal sources for about 39 years of
my life. JC is a tough nut to crack! And to think I’ve actually been
eating tofu and “those grotesque meat imitations made from veggie
products and then shaped into meat like looking products.” I cannot
imagine what I’ve been thinking. Hunks of blood-saturated animal flesh,
fat, and muscle that at some point in the production process were
commingled with various organs, hooves, fur, and shit–forget those
“grotesque meat imitations.” I can really wrap my appetite around
mutilated and raw animal parts that quickly rot if they aren’t
refrigerated.
Sorry Bossy, Wilbur and feathered friends. Since we human animals don’t
find “meat like looking products” to be delectable, we’re going to
continue confining you in dark, cramped quarters throughout your rueful
lives, pumping you full of a toxic stew of antibiotics and growth
hormones, causing you to grow so rapidly that you become crippled,
performing surgery on you with no anesthetic, ripping out your teeth
and clipping off your beaks so that when you go insane from the
conditions we keep you under you can attack your fellow victims without
damaging our product, loading you into severely over-crowded trucks in
which you will do without food or water for several days, and
ultimately hanging you by your hind legs, slitting your throats,
crushing your skulls, and boiling you to death.
Besides, consuming animal flesh worked well for Neanderthals and a mere
50,000 years have passed. Don’t rush us into making changes.
JC: “All the people that chose to eat vegetarian style to attempt
to make a statement, can do so, but their numbers will never increase
enough to make a difference in the amount of animals that are
slaughtered. Its supply and demand and it appears that the demand is
still there. I think a more riveting point in considering limiting
human consumption of some of these products is to be more careful about
the meat/fowl/fish one eats is because
of all the contamination w/ e.coli, salmonella & mercury. That to me, is the real concern.”
She’s right. Every last one of us who “eat vegetarian style” just wants
“to make a statement.” It has NOTHING to do with ethics, moral or
conscience. We’re just showing off, carving out a niche and making a
name for ourselves. And there are so damn few of us that the immutable
laws of capitalism (which all good libertarians from Texas KNOW were
handed down to Moses along with the Ten Commandments) will inevitably
prevail. It is God’s will that we adhere to the law of supply and
demand as the chief guiding principle of humanity. So when JC so
astutely observes, “it appears the demand is still there,” who are we
humble herbivores to argue?
And what self-respecting speciesist inflated with the hubris of
humanity’s inherent right to subjugate and exploit “lesser” beings
wouldn’t agree with this gem from JC?
“I think a more riveting point in considering limiting human
consumption of some of these products is to be more careful about the
meat/fowl/fish one eats is because of all the contamination w/ e.coli,
salmonella & mercury. That to me, is the real concern.”
Fuck the non-human animals. Humans are the REAL concern. Why didn’t I
think of that before I wasted 12 months of prime meat-eating time? Keep
brutalizing the cows, pigs and chickens. Just take care not to get sick
when you eat them.
JC: “This is not one plight that I’m going to worry about -
especially since itis an American tradition. If people want to eat
plain lasagne for T-day or just a green bean casserole for any holiday
they can certainly do so, but it isn’t something that I would
personally choose to do.”
Inflicting unconscionable pain and abuse upon non-human animals so that
we can eat them is an “American tradition.” JC is right! And you don’t
fuck with traditions, especially American ones. Like bombing smaller
countries into the Stone Age. Manifest destinying our way across the
North American continent. Installing and supporting ruthless dictators
who adhere to the Washington Consensus. Wielding our economic power
like a cudgel to beat sovereign nations into submission. Lynching. Jim
Crow. Slavery. Native American genocide. Just to name a few.
And I have to admit that there is something fundamentally flawed with
anyone who would “want to eat plain lasagna for T-day or just a green
bean casserole for any holiday.” That is just plain un-American. Let’s
start carving that bird!
JC: “Again, if PETA is putting something out, I will always have
my doubts - they see things one way and one way only. Theirs. In many
ways the activists in this country are terrorists of a kind. They think
they are more civilized in their behavior but they try to terrorize
people “by educating them” to the extreme conditions some animals face
and are unable to be reasoned with at all. Its their way or the
highway.”
“If PETA is putting something out, I will always have my doubts - they
see things one way and one way only.” Amen to that, JC. Simply examine
their name. Can you imagine a more arrogant, rigid group than the
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals? Thanks to JC’s email, I
too am beginning to harbor many doubts about them. Where the hell do
Ingrid Newkirk and her band of “terrorists of a kind” get off thinking
they are “more civilized in their behavior?” As human beings, don’t we
have the God-given right of dominion, which would mean we can abuse
animals whenever we damn well please? And PETA members, don’t you dare
terrorize us with your knowledge. The reality is that we enjoy eating
the flesh of dead animals and the more ignorant of their pain we
remain, the better. So PETA, you can take OUR way or the highway. I
think you know where the meat-eating population wants you to shove your
ethics. We’re broiling pork chops tonight!
So for a year now I have engaged in this rotten behavior known as
vegetarianism. I have been depriving my body of protein, have been
eating “grotesque” meat substitutes for no reason, have been violating
sacred American traditions, have been “making a statement,” have been
engaging in a form of elitism, and have been a “terrorist of a kind.”
Somebody stop this bus! I want off!
Mea culpa!
And just how many pounds of meat must I consume before I am once again
practicing the “American Way of Life” and reveling in its
“non-negotiable” splendor?
Writings 
“Again, if PETA is putting something out, I will always have my doubts
- they see things one way and one way only. Theirs. In many ways the
activists in this country are terrorists of a kind….” 
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