I suppose now is as good a time as any to experiment with the new blog format. Below is a little article Gary Francione wrote about the charges brought against Michael Vick for organizing dog fights.
Hopefully, this post gets as much reaction as Francione’s original post did, and can foster some lively discussion. Please post any thoughts, questions, criticisms etc. in the comments section.
A Note about Michael Vick
http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/2007/08/02/a-note-about-michael-vick/
“There has been an enormous amount of coverage of the alleged dog fighting operation sponsored by Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick. Vick and three other men were indicted on federal felony charges claiming that Vick had sponsored illegal dog fighting, gambled on dog fights and permitted acts of cruelty against animals on his property. The talk shows are filled with talking heads from the “humane community” condemning dog fighting and calling for Vick to be punished if he is, indeed, guilty. Nike and Reebok have suspended products endorsed by Vick.
Please let me be very clear: I think that dog fighting is a terrible thing.
But I must say that the Vick case is rather dramatically demonstrating what I call our “moral schizophrenia” about animals. That is, if one thing is clear, it is that we do not think clearly about our moral obligations to animals.
In this country alone, we kill over ten billion land animals annually for food. The animals we eat—even those supposedly raised “humanely”—suffer as much as the dogs that are used in dog fighting. There is no “need” for us to eat meat, dairy, or eggs. Indeed, these foods are increasingly linked to various human diseases and animal agriculture is an environmental disaster for the planet. We impose pain, suffering, and death on these billions of sentient nonhumans because we enjoy eating their flesh and the products that we make from them.
There is something positively bizarre about condemning Michael Vick for using dogs in a hideous form of entertainment when 99% of us also use animals that are every bit as sentient as dogs in another hideous form of entertainment that is no more justifiable than fighting dogs: eating animals and animal products.
There is something positively bizarre that many “animal lovers” sit around eating meat that has the Certified Humane Raised and Handled label endorsed by The Humane Society of the United States while HSUS tells us what a bad guy Michael Vick is.
HSUS and PETA are demanding that Vick be suspended from the NFL. As far as I know, neither organization demanded that Michael Jordan be suspended from the NBA because he promoted Ball Park Franks.
There is something bizarre about Reebok and Nike, which use leather in their shoes, suspending products endorsed by Vick. They’re not going to allow a guy who allegedly tortures dogs to endorse products that contain tortured cows.
In Introduction to Animal Rights: Your Child or the Dog?, I introduced Simon the Sadist, who derived pleasure from blowtorching dogs. We would all regard such conduct as monstrous because we all agree that it is wrong to inflict “unnecessary” suffering on animals and pleasure, amusement, and convenience cannot count as satisfying the “necessity” requirement. But then I asked the further question—how are those of us who eat animal flesh and animal products any different from Simon? He enjoys blowtorching dogs; we enjoy the taste of flesh and animal products. But we and Simon both kill sentient beings (we may pay others to do the dirty work) because we derive enjoyment from it.
According to reports, the authorities removed from Vick’s property a “rape stand” used to hold dogs for mating. And “rape racks” are used to hold cows for impregnation. When a dog is involved, we are troubled; when a cow is involved, we ignore it.
Michael Vick may enjoy watching dogs fight; someone else may find that repulsive but see nothing wrong with eating an animal who has had a life as full of pain and suffering as the lives of the fighting dogs. It’s strange that we regard the latter as morally different from, and superior to, the former. How removed from the screaming crowd around the dog pit is the laughing group around the summer steak barbecue?
We are all Simon. We are all Michael Vick.
Go Vegan.
Gary L. Francione
© 2007 Gary L. Francione”
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Oddly enough, I’d written a piece on the same topic for the Independent Voice (the local lefty paper in Kingston) that was published in September.
http://www.independentvoice.ca/2007/09/NErskine-Smith_DogFight.php
It has been edited quite extensively, and I’m not sure it compares to Francione, but there it is.
Even if it’s just a borrowed post, I think you did a fantabulous job on this one. There’s nothing to even add or argue with. Speciesism is wrong, but we act that way all the time. Meat-eating animal lovers…the best quote I found when researching about vegetarianism (I am currently a vegetarian since two years ago and am looking to go vegan) was that true environmentalists don’t eat meat, plain and simple. It just stuck with me, because it’s so true. I think that they should add dairy to that, too, though. I mean, it’s doing as much damage as the meat industry, if not more.
Hey leindiemeister,
Thanks for taking the time to comment. I just wanted to say a couple things about your post.
You say that there is nothing in Francione’s piece to argue with, yet you aren’t a vegan. That is, from what you say, a strange position. You affirm that it is the case that eating animal products is morally reprehensible (by affirming the truth of Francione’s post), yet you continue to eat animal products. I am curious as to why this is.
Francione argues here that there is no morally relevant difference between consuming flesh and consuming, say, dairy or eggs (if not here, then elsewhere, but the idea is implicit in this post). This is because both infringe upon the rights of animals, those which arise in virtue of them being sentient. So, it really makes little difference to the cow if you torture it while taking its milk or do so while taking its leg: in either case you are inflicting suffering on the cow.
It may even be the case that more suffering occurs to a dairy cow or egg laying hen than to meat animals. This is just because they are kept alive longer, but are ultimately sentenced to death as well.
I think you should go vegan, and it really isn’t very hard. Just go to vegweb, look up some recipes and off you go. If you need anything that you cannot purchase in your city, go to vegan essentials and I am sure you can find it.
Peter
Monsieur Peter,
I know all this, I’ve done my research for the past year, and I still have nothing to argue about, with you or with Francione. I even chose to do my English class research paper on factory farms, which included the dairy industry. And I found that horrifying. I’m sure my teacher did, too, because she questioned the validity of what I wrote and I thus received an 86% out of 100% on it. It especially kills me when people question WHY I want to go vegan, stating that it “feels good” for the cows to be milked. Little do they know what it takes for them to produce milk. I mean, being constantly pregnant, hooked up to machines, living in poor conditions, having their calves shipped off to be made into veal. And then for eggs, they torture the hens, too, leaving them in the dark and depriving them of food and water until they lay enough, sometimes. I know. And the reason I can’t tell these ignorant people, by the way, is because I used to and my mother found out that I did and forbade me. That makes me angry, though, because it’s not like I’m lying to them. I’m just informing them. I now have to tell them to look it up on their own. And my littlest sister did, and I think she’s on her way to being vegetarian as well.
But the reason I am not vegan or having a good time going vegan yet is more situational than anything else. I am seventeen and, as a minor, I am still under my mom’s control (that’s normally applied to legal things, I know, but she can still ground me and take away my license) and it took a lot for her to accept me being completely vegetarian (for me, going vegetarian was an immediate thing; there was no transitional period or anything). She still gets angry about it when we have meat dinners for several nights in a row and there is nothing to eat but salad. I love salad, but obviously, that’s not all we eat. It gets old after eating it every night for a week, you know? I like my carbs. She will buy me some especially vegetarian foods (microwavables or ovenables and sometimes things I can prepare on my own with a microwave, an oven, and a stove, which I’ll explain later), but otherwise, I’m limited to what’s around the house that doesn’t contain meat, lard, or gelatin to begin with (that always, always includes fish; I can’t tell you how mad “vegetarian” pescetarians make me). My mother was especially angry when I brought up veganism, and outright refused to buy me what I needed for that, because I am “growing” (I stopped growing when I was thirteen-ish, actually). If I had a job, I could buy my own things, but with four AP courses and social phobia that makes my palms sweat just thinking about asking for a job application, that’s not entirely realistic, though I’m seriously considering settling for working at the local grocery store, which pays little. It could work, but we just moved here, which means we’re living out of boxes and have no oven or microwave, so that limits my food choices as far as what’s in the house and what I buy. My plan, then, is to go fully vegan when I go off to college in ten months. Lose what most people gain as the “freshman fifteen,” help animals, keep reading this blog, essentially. I’m not in it for the health reasons at all, though. Otherwise, I’d be lifting weights while typing this, I think.
By the way, I appreciate the links at the bottom. I already have vegweb bookmarked, but I’ve just now bookmarked vegan essentials! And also–I realize that going vegan isn’t about convenience, I really do. I realize that it would be rather beneficial if I overcame social phobia, got a well-paying job while tackling my AP courses singlehandedly and snuck behind my mother’s back to go vegan, just living off of fruits, beans, and vegetables and other raw things that don’t require cooking, or if they did require heating, I could start a bonfire in my back yard and heat them up. And I’m sure there are actually true tales like that one. But for now, for me, the biggest step would be the first one, which is rather unlikely, again, until I turn 18 and can get therapy or medication on my own.
leindiemeister aka Paige
Hey Paige,
That is quite the story, and I do sympathize, really. If you need any help with the vegan transition or want advice on anything animal rights related, feel free to send us an email.
If you have the time, you should read “Introduction to Animal Rights” by Gary Francione. It is a clearly written book outlining a philosophically strong animal rights position which will help you to articulate why you are vegan to those who question your motives. I have found that being informed and well read on these issues is always the best way stay motivated and deal with the naysayers.
Peter