There are few anti-veg arguments that bother me more than those that are lazy and miss the point entirely. Uneducated views about protein, iron and calcium I can handle because we get told from day 1 that you need meat and dairy for optimal nutrition and some people just haven't discovered that's not the case.
But arguments that say being veg is pointless because rodents get killed by harvesters is just defeatist and misses the point that we should all do the best we can to reduce animal suffering. People who go veg realise they can't save all the animals in the world from suffering but that does not mean we should contribute to more suffering! To be fair, he does point out that vegetarians may use dairy and eggs, etc, but rather than suggesting going vegan as an option he suggests we just protest against seal clubbing!
Imagine the author of this piece had a sick child - would he be satisfied if the doctor told him "We can't save everyone, so we won't bother trying to save your child either"?
Surely doing what you can is better than doing nothing at all. It sounds as if he has never given serious consideration to animal suffering and is happy to have found an argument where he can relinquish all responsibility and wipe his hands clean of the whole debate.
No comments:
Post a Comment