Marc Bekoff recently wrote an article in response to Christopher Cox‘s oyster article.

Cox argued that vegans should eat oysters because there isn’t enough proof that oysters feel pain.

Bekoff refutes. He makes some great points, like:

“Humans have come up with various terms to reflect their choices of who, not what, we choose to put in our mouth. And one thing is clear – the term ‘vegan’ means no animals or animal products wind up there.”

and

“For all we know, oysters might feel pain. For a long time people thought fish didn’t feel pain, but we now know that isn’t so ”

and

“We can easily reduce suffering and increase our ‘compassion footprint’ by choosing a vegan diet.”

I was compelled to respond. Here’s what I wrote:

I don’t know if oysters feel pain. And I don’t care.

I think the most compelling reason to avoid eating oysters – by both vegans and nonvegans – is the potential for food poisoning or ingesting heavy metals. And now, with the BP oil spill, anyone chowing down on oysters is taking a pretty big health gamble.

But that’s not the point of Mr. Cox’s essay. The point is pain. And it’s a valid point. If a nonvegan is considering transitioning from their current diet of eating anything that looks, sounds, smells, or tastes good to something a bit more ethical, then they ought to consider whether or not their food suffered. On that point, let’s forget about oysters and instead think about animals more commonly consumed: cows, chickens, fishes.

While it’s probably most “natural” and it’s certainly most common for humans to extend some empathy to mammals and thus to reduce or eliminate their consumption of mammals, if one takes seriously the notion of an ethical diet, eliminating the consumption of farmed poultry* and farmed fish would produce a larger reduction of animal suffering. Here’s why:

a) poultry and fish have the fewest legal protections against cruelty and abuse. Cows, pigs, goats, and horses have more protection (even if it’s still pretty paltry).
b) these animals are most often farmed using factory style techniques (in warehouses, not pastures; overusing antibiotics and steroids; overbred, overworked; piled on top of one another or crammed into small spaces, etc.)
c) these animals suffer their entire lives, not just at the end (beef cattle, on the other hand, have a greater chance of experiencing some portion of their life out on a pasture under the sun, though many never do)
d) calorie for calorie, more animals suffer and die in order to make or become meals of chicken, eggs, or fish than to become steak or pork.

See here:

But pain isn’t – and probably shouldn’t be – the only thing that one cares about when choosing a diet. If one considers the environmental and health effects, then one should severely limit or eliminate ALL animal products. Said another way, if one cares about animal suffering, the environment, and their health, then they should go vegan!

note: poultry = chickens, turkeys, other birds, and also rabbits according the USDA

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Sections: Vegan Theory
Topics: bekoff, Christopher Cox, cox, marc bekoff, oysters, phychology today, Theory, veg, Vegan