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 Her essay discussed how she came upon a female pig that had been isolated in an empty pen, and how the animal had withdrawn into itself to such a degree that when she touched the pig, it barely acknowledged her at all.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!