Being a vegan, I get my fair share of dumb questions, but today truly topped the cake. Now, by dumb questions, I mean some dumb questions! Can vegetarians eat animal crackers? Can vegans eat fish? And aren't we meant to eat meat? But this one was by far the most dim-witted question I’ve gotten in a while:
Both plants and animals are alive, so what’s the difference between the two? You’re no better than the rest of us.
We’re going to school at Penn State. Do we really not know the difference between plants and animals yet? Perhaps we can find the difference in these next two pictures:
and this
Still looking for a difference? Yeah, me too.
Now don’t get me wrong, I know it wasn't a serious question and it was at best a poor excuse as to why he eats meat, but come on, come up with something that shows you thought logically for a second. Hell, even make something up! But the point of all of this is not to show how dumb the question was, but to show that most people haven’t given it any thought as to how poorly we treat the animals we call meat. Most people can’t even think of a reason to care! But surprisingly, there are reasons to care....
When I was a child, my friend down the road would catch bee's and use insulation foam to permanently stick them to the ground so they would squirm around and eventually die. He didn’t see any problem with this. When I went back to my house and told my mom how disgusted I was, she agreed and made a big deal out of it saying I probably shouldn't hang out with him anymore if he does things like that. I now know why it was such a big deal. If a child abuses an animal, or insect in this case, there is something physiologically wrong with them.
And the end of this story brings me to a question: why is it when a child abuses something as small as an insect there is something drastically wrong, but when we abuse animals daily without ever second guessing, it’s perfectly acceptable? Do we have to mistreat animals like that? At what point is it wrong?
Uh Oh! I better have not just hear another excuse!
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
The Dumberest Question Ever
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1 comment:
"If a child abuses an animal, or insect in this case, there is something physiologically wrong with them."
Unfortunately, in the case of factory farming, the only ones directly abusing animals (as opposed to hiring someone to do their dirty work, or just being ignorant) are very often illegal immigrants who need to do these things just to make enough money to feed their family. You have psychological problems if you torture animals for fun, but not necessarily if you need to in order to survive (I would recommend watching Fast Food Nation).
This is actually the exact argument I responded to here: http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2008/12/08/vegetarians_have_reasons_for_w.aspx
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