Cows and Pigs

The latest reading in the "Animal Ethics Reader" raised some interesting points. Most especially, I think about pigs and cows.

In Wemelsfelder's "Lives of Quiet Desperation", pigs are the main concern. She explains how she worked with pigs a great deal, and knew their behavior patterns. Pigs are naturally inquisitive and active, and are also social creatures. Her essay discussed how she came upon a female pig that had been isolated in an empty pen, and how the animal had withdrawn into itself to such a degree that when she touched the pig, it barely acknowledged her at all.

The essay made me very sad because whenever I have come across pigs, they have always been in fairly large groups. This essay made me understand why. Depriving that female pig of companionship, and seeing what effect it had produced the same result, I think, that most animal experimentation would. Taken away from the natural way of things, an animal has no recourse but to become something it was not meant to be. In the case of this particular pig, she stopped being active, stopped being interested in anything happening around her, and was, quite simply and obviously, in a state of despair. Her body posture, and even the expression in her eyes made it clear to Wemelsfelder that just because a pig is not human, it didn't mean that a pig cannot feel.

Most assuredly pigs do.

As for cows, many articles in this section covered them. Everything from cow by products (like insulin and hormones used for medicine to treat things like diabetes, asthma and anemia, to tires and Antifreeze. The consumption of a cow does not stop at its meat. I'd never really thought of that, other than the obvious source of leather. I never thought to consider where the insulin that diabetics self-medicate with. I almost feel guilty about it.

William Stephens, in his own essay in Chapter 32 notes the top five reasons for a vegetarian diet. Number 2 blames the cattle industry for ecological damage, and it's no doubt very accurate, too. Ranches spread for thousands of acres, and the sheer size of the herds kept and bred for food and leather (among other things) must be staggering. These are grazing animals, obviously, so the effect that many grazers would have on the environment must be devestating!

Illness and early maturation of girls- troubling realizations

In class today, the idea that the degenerative disease Alzheimers may be directly related to the hormones and drugs that livestock are given, was raised. It's a worrisome though, especially since the disease is becoming all the more common. This is not a theory I'd heard before. To my knowledge, there had not been any widely-accepted theories as to the cause of the illness, and everything from genetics to long-term exposure to the television was under investigation.

Also troubling is the idea that these same drugs and hormones, forced upon these nonhuman animals "for their own protection" may be the cause for early sexual development in young girls. I had certainly heard that this was becoming an increasing problem, with girls as young as 10 starting to menstruate. I am just glad that, if it had to happen somewhere, it is the United States. That sounds awful, I suppose, but when you think about it, it would be far worse for this same event to take place early in some other cultures, where body mutilation of sexually mature girls is a sacred tradition, and leaves emotional and physical scars...and even can be lethal, in some cases if the unfortunate victims bleed out after the ceremony. I know for certain that many African Tribal nations have this practice, and perhaps some South American tribes do, as well.
Fran Hosken writes a compelling, but very graphic essay on this issue here:
http://http://www.nocirc.org/symposia/first/hosken.html

I'll warn you now that there are actually diagrams showing how the mutilation effects the women it has been performed on, and it is not something comfortably viewed.

Here is a short passage: "Many colorful myths are related all over Africa as reasons for the operations. Though all the myths are still believed by the ethnic groups involved inn the rural areas, many of the reasons are contradictory, and none of them are compatible with biological facts.
Most Africans who practice these operations believe that excision is a custom decreed by the ancestors; therefore, it must be complied with. Most often, men refuse to marry girls who are not excised. Since marriage is still the only career for a woman in most of Africa and the Middle East, the operations continue. "No proper Kikuyu would dream of marrying a girl who has not been circumcised," stated Jomo Kenyatta, the revered leader of Kenya, in his book, Facing Mount Kenya, which was written in the 1930s and continued to be published, and is also sold in tourist shops in Nairobi.
As President of Kenya for life, Kenyatta had great influence on Africans well beyond the borders of Kenya, and his much quoted statement is responsible for the mutilation of many thousands of helpless little girls and untold suffering and deaths."

Diet and Daytime TV

I've never been one to be choosy about what I eat. Granted, I try to eat healthy enough that I wont be going down with all the health problems associated with things like binge-eating and high cholestoral. Even so, though, I don't think I really have it in me to ever give up on meat. I'm a meat & potatoes sort of girl, you know?

I need a burger every now and then, and sometimes even something like a steak. I enjoy salads, and I enjoy fruit, but I can't live off of those. I need me my chicken, my turkey and my fish. A vegetarian diet, however healthy, just isn't for me. Never has been.

Believe me, I give credit to those that manage it- it takes a lot more drive and will-power to give up on half of what makes up the diet of most everybody else. Making the choice to give up meat is no doubt a choice that will let them live longer than I will. Even knowing that, though, I don't think I could just change my entire diet around for a few extra years. I'm comfortable with my eating habits (well okay, I could definitely eat healthier, even sticking with my omnivorous diet), and when you find something that works for you, why change it?

There are plenty of arguments in favor of a vegetarian diet (things like being nice to nonhuman animals, for instance), but again, as much as I love animals, I don't think I could just not consume them anymore. That kind of decision would be hard to do. Habits are hard to break, and humans are nothing if not creatures of habit. How else to explain daytime television? It's always the same exact plot, but people keep tuning in. Not because it's good (because, really, it's not), but because they tuned in yesterday, and are compelled to continue to tune in every day, just to find out what happens, next.