This Age of Cruelty to Animals

[Lou]

Opinion | We Will Look Back on This Age of Cruelty to Animals in Horror (Published 2021)

How we treat farm animals today will be seen as a defining moral failing of our age.

www.nytimes.com

Ezra Klein, who wrote this article is one of the founders and main guys at Vox. I have seen and heard a lot of his work. I used to subscribe to his newsletter (until I got so behind in reading them), and I still listen to some of his podcasts. As far as editors go, he is one of the best proponents of animal rights.

This article's objective is to get people to give to charities such as the Humane League, Mercy for Animals, the Good Food Institute, New Harvest, and the Material Innovation Initiative.

In order to achieve that objective he spends most of the article explaining what is wrong with the livestock industry. Of course, those reading this post are already convinced. However it is still a good reminder for us to do something else for the animals at this time of the year. I think that it's fantastic that it is being run in the NYT and will be seen by a much wider audience.

 

[Emma JC]

great article @Lou - when I think about the animals and the cruelty they endure I am so grateful that there is a three pronged approach to plant-based eating - the people that do it for the animals, those that do it for the environment and those of us who came to it for health.... it all comes back to a loving viewpoint love for the animals, mother earth and ourselves

many causes only have one 'entry point' and so we are lucky to have three - most of us who came for health now also are more aware of all aspects of animal cruelty (furs, leather, animal testing, etc) and those that come for the environment usually also wake up to the animal cruelty part

very grateful to be part of this loving community!

Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com

 

[Lou]

And...
There are the two strategies mentioned in the article
Amelioration and substitution.
Actually never heard them called that before. I've always called them animal rights and animal welfare. But the authors choice of words seems better to me now. Both clearer and more distinct.

 

[Sax]

He makes a good point in favor of welfarism...if you were the chicken, you'd give anything for the less painful slaughter. I still favor abolitionism and it's big picture approach but zooming in to the individual level adds perspective too.

Oh, and Ezra Klein left Vox recently. I like his writing and what he did with Vox too.

 

[fuzzy logic]

Interesting article. Meat grown in a lab is an interesting topic, I don't quite know how I feel about it. On one hand, I think humanity needs to come to the conclusion that they cannot have everything and that our diets need to change...on the other hand, I think about my dog and how there's no way to switch her diet from meat now...it would be nice to have the option of meat that didn't come from a living animal.

 

[Lou]

Another great article from Vox.
Perhaps it should be filed under "What You Should Be Reading".

...even with humans doing better and better, the sheer misery and rising numbers of farmed animals like pigs, chickens, and cows mean that on net, global welfare is declining and trending negative. As he puts it:​

​

“The entire good of humanity may be outweighed by the cumulative suffering of farmed animals, with total animal suffering growing faster than human wellbeing is increasing, especially in recent decades.”​

Human progress has come at the expense of animals. It doesn’t have to.

Add in the extreme suffering of tens of billions of farmed animals, and suddenly the world looks like a much darker place.

www.vox.com