Torture of animals will go on

Michael Pollan makes a good point in his article “An Animal’s Place” from the New York Times. I myself am a meat eater, and I don’t think that reading this or anything similar will have any effect on my eating habits, although I see how it can for some people. Michael may be pickier as to what meat he eats, but I really don’t see why.

“Steve Davis, an animal scientist at Oregon State University, has estimated that if America were to adopt a strictly vegetarian diet, the total number of animals killed every year would actually increase, as animal pasture gave way to row crops. Davis contends that if our goal is to kill as few animals as possible, then people should eat the largest possible animal that can live on the least intensively cultivated land: grass-fed beef for everybody. It would appear that killing animals is unavoidable no matter what we choose to eat” (Pollan). This speaks for itself. A vegetarian diet will result in more deaths of animals, which is obviously what the activists are fighting against. They should really consider the effects of what would happen if everyone were to stop eating meat.

“There is, too, the fact that we humans have been eating animals as long as we have lived on this earth. Humans may not need to eat meat in order to survive, yet doing so is part of our evolutionary heritage, reflected in the design of our teeth and the structure of our digestion” (Pollan). Humans eating animals has been going on since the beginning of time, and it’s in our nature. As Darwin says about what evolution is, “survival of the fittest,” and it seems that we are the fittest right now. In an e-mail message to Pollan from Peter Singer regarding animals that live on a Good Farm, Singer says, "I agree with you that it is better for these animals to have lived and died than not to have lived at all” (Pollan). Having a chance to live is far better than than not living at all, regardless of how long your life is, unless it is full of torture and turmoil.

Why treat animals more ethically than they treat one another? (Ben Franklin tried this one long before me: during a fishing trip, he wondered, "If you eat one another, I don't see why we may not eat you" (Pollan). Is it not true that animals will eat one another whether or not we eat them too? It is possible that our killing of animals may be less severe than them fighting one another and being wounded, or suffering for long periods of time even after winning a battle.

I have to agree with Pollan that it would be much better if people were to work for animal welfare, rather than animal rights. I disagree with the torturing of any living creatures and believe that when they are slaughtered, it should be done swiftly and painlessly. Michael chooses to eat only the animals that were killed humanely, or that he thinks were killed humanely. By doing that, he may be more satisfied with himself, but it will not have any effect on the torturing of animals. Regardless if there is a sticker on the meat we buy saying “Free Farmed,” we really don’t know that they were treated humanely unless we actually went to the farm or slaughterhouse. Unfortunately, torturing of animals will continue to happen no matter how many people protest it or try to stop it.



Works Cited

Pollan, Michael. “An Animal’s Place.” The New York Times 10 Nov. 2002. “Steve Davis, an animal scientist at Oregon State University, has estimated that if America were to adopt a strictly vegetarian diet, the total number of animals killed every year would actually increase, as animal pasture gave way to row crops. Davis contends that if our goal is to kill as few animals as possible, then people should eat the largest possible animal that can live on the least intensively cultivated land: grass-fed beef for everybody. It would appear that killing animals is unavoidable no matter what we choose to eat.”

“There is, too, the fact that we humans have been eating animals as long as we have lived on this earth. Humans may not need to eat meat in order to survive, yet doing so is part of our evolutionary heritage, reflected in the design of our teeth and the structure of our digestion.”

“I agree with you that it is better for these animals to have lived and died than not to have lived at all.”

”If you eat one another, I don’t see why we may not eat you.“