I just read a review of a book written a couple of years ago: The Pig Who Sang to the Moon, by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson. I haven’t read the book yet. The reviewer applauds Masson’s clumsy approach to animal rights, saying his blundering way may reach more meat-eaters than does the pure logic of writers like Peter Singer.

The reviewer pulls out one comparison from the book, paraphrasing it:

“In effect, we each start life with about six cows, thirty sheep, twenty-two pigs, fifteen ducks, and eight hundred chickens in our very own factory farm. Those of us who choose not to eat meat set that number of animals free, while the rest of us kill ‘ours’ one by one to eat them, and the last is in our stomachs when we die.”

What a terrific way to put it, even though we don’t actually free any animals when we don’t eat them - because they simply don’t get born in the first place. We do, however, prevent many animals from going through the horrors of being raised for meat. I can see a meat eater making a choice not to “kill” one chicken, and then another, as she abstains from one meat meal at a time. She could make some mental calculations based on the above numbers and set goals.

I quit eating meat when I was 36, probably much older than most of the people who read this blog. I can’t explain why it didn’t click before then, and why, in fact, I quit for health reasons (later changed to a wider range of reasons) and why it took my six-year-old daughter to move our family in that direction. I do think that my experience as a compassionate human serves as an example, though, for those who malign meat eaters and assume they are immoral or worse. I wasn’t in the habit of blocking my eyes to reality. I didn’t deny anything. I simply didn’t know enough and didn’t think enough about the animals that are raised for food. Like many others, I naively thought that farm animals were protected from inhumane treatment (I had not yet reached the point of recognizing that “killing” constitutes inhumane treatment) and I simply had not given my food enough thought (beyond looking at its benefits for my health).

I am also an imperfect vegan. Not that anyone is perfect, but I am one who at times succumbs to a lifelong craving for cheese, for instance. My record is improving, though, and I expect it to continue to improve. It is because of my own experience that I am more sympathetic and hopeful about others.

Based on the above numbers, I expect that when I die I will have freed about three cows, fifteen sheep, eleven pigs, seven ducks, and four hundred chickens. Good for me.

Sections: Vegan Activism, Vegan Theory
Topics: books, Theory, veg, Vegan, words