[333] in Vegetarian_Support_Group
Re: Local Newspaper Article
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Orca Starbuck)
Mon Jan 30 19:51:34 1995
Date: Mon, 30 Jan 1995 19:46:19 -0400
To: Don Whiting <dwhiting@cs.stmarys.ca>
From: orca@cambridge.apple.com (Orca Starbuck)
Cc: Vegetarian Support <vsg@MIT.EDU>
I'm not writing to address your main point (about the article that claims
meat made us smart...) just to point out a disagreement with something else:
>I've been on a local BBS discussing vegetarianism and a lot of people were
>agreeing with the premise of AR. However, as we all know, there are a great
>number of people who don't agree with AR (IMHO, it's because they *ENJOY*
>oppressing animals) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
*I* don't agree with AR. Therefore, I enjoy oppressing animals?
Please, folks!! AR is a very specific moral theory. Not all people who
are concerned about animals agree with that particular theory. Please do
not make the mistake of thinking that people are EITHER in the AR camp or
in the "let's cheerfully exploit all animals willy-nilly" camp. There are
many other viewpoints.
Personally, I object to AR in several respects. First of all, I don't
think the concept of "rights" is philosophically well founded in the first
place, even with respect to humans. Second, even if I were to agree with
the concept of rights in the first place, I disagree with AR's concept of
what exactly these rights are and what constitutes animal oppression. For
example, I don't think that keeping a cat inside one's house is necessarily
oppression, nor do I think that selective, intentional breeding of animals
is necessarily oppression (so long as that breeding is carried out in the
best interests of the animals), nor do I think that participation of dogs
and horses etc. in events such as obedience trials and trail rides is
necessarily oppression, nor do I think that it is always wrong to use
animals in experiments (for example, I believe that animals are essential
in veterinary research). In general, I think there are responsible and
respectful ways that we can interact with animals, and irresponsible and
disrespectful ways. I consider the raising of animals for meat to be
irresponsible and disrespectful. Also, I think there are probably
responsible and respectful ways to produce eggs and dairy products and
other animal derived products such as wool, but I don't feel that we do
this properly and respectfully in our society. Therefore, I'm a vegan.
Among people opposed to AR, there are certainly those with sadistic
tendencies (though I think these are very few); there are others who simply
don't care about animals (and I think, in our society, these are also
relatively few); there are others who don't think very hard about what we
do to animals in our society, or who think about it and think it is cruel
to some extent but is necessary (this group is, I think, by far the
largest); and there are quite a few people who think about it a lot and
work to eliminate cruelty, yet are opposed to AR on other grounds, like me.
Just imagine! I not only get to ceaselessly explain "why am I a vegan" to
my non vegetarian friends, co-workers and family; I also get to ceaselessly
explain "why am I not in favor of AR and PeTA, etc" to my vegetarian/vegan
friends and acquaintances! :-)
