To meat or not to meat?

To meat, or not to meat? That is the question on peoples’ minds these days and especially after reading the article by Michael Pollan entitled, An Animal’s Place published in The New York Times back on November 10, 2002. The review is based on a book titled; Animal Liberation by Peter Singer. Singer, a former Australian philosopher gives a great argument on his view of animal rights. He recommends the law be that animals, whether used for food, pets, or reproduction, should be considered “beings,” not “things.” In other words, he feels that animals are not only abused, but treated unfairly by keeping them caged up with little room to move around from the day they are brought into this world to the day they are brought to the slaughter house. I watched this program on the Discovery Channel the other day in which they had a biography if you will on the life of a chicken and a cow. Chickens are hatched, put in a cage, lay eggs for a few years, and then killed so we can have chicken nuggets from McDonald’s, which I still am skeptical about being actual chicken meat, but that is a whole other argument. Female cows are born, tied up in some barn, used to supply milk to the shelves of Stop and Shop which we the consumer visit every day to purchase because, “it does a body good,” then once they are no longer suitable to produce high quality milk, they are brought to the slaughter house, and butchered to make steaks for the Morton’s Steakhouse, Michael Jordan’s Restaurant, and Ruth’s Chris to name a few, but you get the idea. And this goes on day after day, month after month, year after year, until we make an effort to unite and not eat meat?

“Hold your horses, or should I say cows.” I agree with Pollan’s stand in which he states, “Animals kill one another all the time. Why treat animals more ethically than they treat one another?” I agree that the animals might be abused their whole lives, however, we are carnivores, and need to eat meat to get the essential nutrients we need to keep our bodies healthy. Plus, how can anyone go without a nice, tender, juicy porterhouse steak grilled to perfection? I’ll be honest, I eat meat at every meal except breakfast, and I don’t know how I would be able to survive eating meat substitutes and fruits and vegetables every day. Now don’t get me wrong, I think animals are great creatures and there should be more moral when talking about these beings. They are living beings, and deserve the same freedom that we do. They shouldn’t be allowed to vote, inherit fortunes once their keeper passes, but they should have an open area to run around in, they should be maintained (clean, checked for illnesses, etc.) so they can live a pretty normal life until they reach the age in which they are prime to be selected for the slaughter house. It’s the way of the food chain. What else can I say we are at the top of the food chain, like the lion is in Africa, if we want chicken, beef, or pork, whose going to stop us?

So, it is said that after people read this book they have a little sense of feeling, and an understanding of this whole process involved in killing the creatures we eat, and I totally get it since it is a painful and unethical process and I could see why people would change their view about eating meat, but how long is their diet going to stay like that. You see it happen all the time, someone watches The People Under The Stairs, and then they are afraid to go in the basement for a few days, it happens on Sports center, suddenly, a football team is winning a few games in a row, and everyone agrees with the expert analysis that they are going to go to the Superbowl, all this is a ploy to see a person’s view on a certain subject and see if you will agree with that person and route for that team, or in this case, not eat meat.

My philosophy is, what you don’t know, can’t kill you. I rather keep my ears and eyes away from these topics, and continue living my life the way I am used to, and keep eating my beef stew, fried chicken, and pulled pork. I agree the treatment of animals can sometimes be viewed as unmoral, however, it is not up to me to tell the people who are in this field to change what they are doing. They have been doing it longer than I have, and I can only give my opinion.


Pollan, Michael. "An Animal's Place." Animal Liberation, by Peter Singer. The New York Times Nov. 2002