Take my tofu....please!

        So here I am on my way into the first class of the day and as I come through the tube, from the parking garage to building 3, I’m met by a young lady with an armful of pamphlets she was handing  out to passersby. On the cover of this pamphlet are cute pictures of a baby chicken and some piglets, with the banner “Compassionate Choices: Making a Difference for Animals.” Inside is a pamphlet full of pathos to argue the point for a vegan based existence. There is much about what the pamphlet purports that can be argued against scientifically, but I am in agreement with the inhumanity in factory farming. What I am not in agreement with is an either or mentality in a proposed solution as is suggested in this pamphlet. According to the pamphlet the only solution is to abstain from meat and dairy products. This really pisses me off.

        

       There is a legitimate need to reevaluate our factory farm process and begin considering animal physical and mental well-being, from beginning to end of the process. Animal husbandry and handling should reflect a respect for the animal’s service to us. The overcrowding and inhumane treatment must end, but we don’t have to stop eating meat to make a change. I don’t support factory farming and I show this by not buying factory farmed product.

        

        I meet my meat. I buy beef and pork from a local producer who welcomes customers to his farm. I have walked among the pigs and cattle he produces and observed meat animals raised in the tradition of the family farm; with respect and consideration. There were no animals I encountered that had a fear reaction to me, and all glowed with health. When asked of the slaughter process, he said it was a one shot, one kill operation done away from the holding area of the other animals. This is how I was raised on the family farm; to respectfully care for and nourish your animals, to handle them causing the least amount of stress, to cause them no fear, indeed to love them. Then at the appropriate time, kindly and reverently kill them. This, I feel is the responsibility of a meat eater.

       

       So this pile of erroneous pathos plagued pamphlet has one slant, don’t eat meat or dairy. It takes away from the legitimate argument over factory farming by reducing solutions to the problem. Besides, I’m an omnivore; meat is part of my diet, take it away and I will revolt.

        By the way, I asked this girl what she was studying and she said she wasn’t a student here. There should be a rule against that. I don’t pay to come to school and to be solicited in the hallways by any other than a fellow student.