Recently a good friend, an activist in his own right, gave me the name of someone he’d heard speak on public radio—an author and animal advocate who has given many talks and written several books on animal social behavior. I was excited to find a new educator with new (to me) information and immediately looked him up.
I found his work fascinating and really enjoyed his books. I was ready to write to him and ask for an interview when I found out something very disturbing: this writer/researcher, advocate for animals, educator of animal social behavior, is not vegan.
I am disappointed. I am angry. I am amazed at the disconnect displayed by someone who has dedicated his life to teaching others to appreciate animals. How can he eat them? It makes no sense to spend a lifetime studying animals for the purpose of educating the world about their complexity and worth and then, what? Kill them and eat them because they are only food? Is that not negating his own life’s work?
I have family who are environmentalists, who work for well-known globally active conservation organizations, who are not vegan. Hello! Work to save the rainforests and native species who live there, but contribute to the problem by not considering the destructive catastrophe that is factory farming?
I have friends who volunteer for companion animal shelters who are not vegan. Why? Because dogs and cats are the only animals who deserve love and care?
I cannot understand this thinking. I cannot wrap my head around loving some animals and eating others.
I don’t want to negate the good and important work these people do. I want to open their eyes. I want to open their minds. An animal is an animal is an animal. All are sentient. All feel pain. All feel joy and love. All mothers love their babies. All want freedom. All want to live.
Jane Goodall said, “Thousands of people who say they love animals sit down once or twice a day to enjoy the flesh of creatures who have been utterly deprived of everything that could make their lives worth living and who endured the awful suffering and the terror of the abattoirs.”
The fact is quite simple. You cannot care about animals and eat them too.
Susan Barzallo is News and Associate Editor of The Animals Voice.
