“If abboitoirs had glass walls…
we’d all be vegetarian” said Paul McCartney.
But he was wrong. In many (most, even) parts of the world, people do live side by side with the slaughter of animals. I’ve shopped in Russian markets past little skinned rabbits with their paws still on, stepped over rivers of blood running down the gutter from the goat seller’s stall in Egypt, and scraped chiken guts off my shoes in Bangladesh - and vegetarians are few and far between in these countries.
To say that if we all saw the suffering of animals when they die is enough to turn us off our carnivorous ways ignores the fact that this is the way we’ve been doing it forever.
So why should you consider switching the T-Bone for the Tofu?
- Because it’s good for the planet - says Graham Hill in his TED presentation on why he’s a weekday vegetarian; and
- Because it’s a good moral decision - says Jeff McMahan in this Philosophy Bites podcast.
At least they’re my two reasons. What are yours?
(Honourable mention goes out to Peter Singer, The Ethics of What We Eat for being the book that first changed my mind)
