Choosing Which Animals To Eat

Carolyn Miller
Nov 4 · 3 min read

Globally we consume 350 million tons of meat every year. Our demand for meat continues to rise while the availability of meat decreases. We commonly do not think much about meat or its contributions to climate change. We generally view it as a fundamental part of a healthy diet. But rarely do we even consider which animals we should or should not eat.

(Image courtesy of Vox)

In Jonathan Safran Foer’s book Eating Animals, he discusses what it means to eat meat and how we define animals. We only eat some animals and see it completely immoral to eat others. The biggest contradiction would be the distinction between keeping dogs as pets and not eating dogs. We have this idea embedded that dogs are man’s best friend, however, it is legal to eat dogs in forty four states. We tend to separate dogs as animals that are remarkably unique and intellectual however pigs are as every bit as intellectual and have the same feelings. So why is it so far-fetched to have a pig as a pet or why is it so far-fetched to eat the dog? We value animals as equal but some animals are more equal than others and that determines how we decide which ones it is appropriate for us to consume. Our biggest argument for separating dogs from animals such as pigs, chickens, and cows would be dogs are companion animals. Pigs can also be companion animals. Another idea that we use to separate dogs with other animals is that dogs have a significant mental capacity. However defining which animals to eat by mental capacity means that pigs, cows, chickens, and many species of sea animals would also be included. Although eating dogs is unnatural and many people who live in the United States are opposed many other places around the world do eat dogs. It is a common tradition or practice. We do not want to see any animal stuff for a more unreasonable amount than it does but at the same time we condone factory farming.

(Image courtesy of Amazon)

Factory farming and the fishing industry are probably one of the most brutal practices to look into. Many people recall switching from a meat eating diet to a vegetarian diet after watching some sort of documentary such as Cowspiracy. It is a very interesting concept to think that we allow some animals to suffer and others to not. Advocating for the extreme, eating dogs really just incorporates the mentality that we do value other animals over some. After looking deeper into factory farming or the fishing industry we tend to feel an incredible amount of responsibility or shame. Shame is crucial for invoking moral sensibility. It’s been has recently been uncovered from an undercover dairy investigation that Fair Oaks Farm perpetuates the cycle of animal abuse in factory farming. Fair Oaks Farm advertises themselves as a brand that does not condone animal abuse however but multiple videos of employees physically harming calves were released. I remember when these videos were going around on social media and many people were posting them on their Instagram stories. I did think it was important to get the information out there, however that does not fix the grand scheme of factory farming. Just because one corporation was exposed of animal abuse that does not mean there aren’t millions of other companies that do the same. In order to cultivate a new sense of animal value we need to totally change our current system of agriculture that relies on factory farming for the majority of meat. It is simply not enough just to get the awareness out to the public and make personal changes, but have large societal changes that ban factory farming.

(Image courtesy of facebook)

Sources:

Eating Animals(Foer, 2009) https://www.theworldcounts.com/counters/world_food_consumption_statistics/world_meat_consumption_statistics

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