Voter's Alert from 1000 Friends of Oregon
Voter's Alert from 1000 Friends of Oregon
Voices for the World
By Dr. Paul Kail
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In the United States, those businesses which are based on the suffering
of animals promote their interests through PR agencies and lobby groups. One of the
aims of this PR is to persuade people that concern for animal welfare is, first of
all, a radical issue that would only be of interest to lunatics and, second, in conflict
with a "more important" need to care about humans.
In a society where people believe that they are "free" because they can
register their preference for one of two slightly different capitalist parties, it
is obviously not that difficult to persuade them that concern for other species is
radical. Very few people are capable of independent thought, and they will happily
do whatever they are told is the accepted norm, regardless of how ridiculous it may
be. If all your friends abuse their children, and you don't, you are the one who
is radical. If you live in a society where it is legal to test an oven cleaner by
putting it in a rabbit's eye - but it is illegal to have sex in certain positions
- yes, you are the dangerous radical if you think this is wrong.
But the second objection to concern about animals seems, on the surface, more rational.
Many people who have never in their lives done anything to help their own species
are outraged when somebody expresses concern for the welfare of another "inferior"
one.
The truth is that concern for humans almost always goes hand in hand with concern
for other species. Survey after survey has shown that people who care the most about
animal rights also have the most liberal views on human rights. Conversely, sadists
and psychopaths invariable turn out to have had a history of abusing animals.
The two needs work together in a much more practical sense, as well. If you are one
of these objectors to animal rights who wants to "put people first" perhaps
you should consider becoming a vegan. The single best thing you can do to help your
fellow humans is to stop eating dead animals.
A given area of land can support one meat-eater on a typical US diet; or ten vegetarians,
or twenty vegans. In the United States, 90% of the agricultural land (and two thirds
of all the arable land) is used, directly or indirectly, to produce dead animals
or cow secretions. Although water is in short supply in many states, it is often
subsidized to farmers. Half of all the water used in the US is used in the dead-animal
industry, mainly to irrigate crops used for feed. However, outside the "white"
parts of the world, not everyone has enough to eat: according to the World Health
Organization two billion people are suffering from one or other form of malnutrition.
Some 49% of the 10 million deaths among under-five children each year in the developing
world are associated with malnutrition, .... iodine deficiency is the greatest single
preventable cause of brain-damage and mental retardation worldwide, ..... and vitamin
A deficiency remains the single greatest preventable cause of needless childhood
blindness.
A single person in a Western society who switches to a vegan diet releases the land
and water resources to feed twenty people. The equation is not as simple as that,
of course: a major reason for human malnutrition is distribution, rather than lack
of food. Nevertheless, according to the Overseas Development Council, if Americans
were to reduce their meat consumption by only ten percent it would free enough grain
to feed 60 million people.
The next time you are in McDonald's, biting into your dead cow, spare a thought for
all the dead humans in Africa.
I am a writer who specializes in issues of animal intelligence and
consciousness, animal rights and animal welfare. I have a PhD from the
University of Cambridge in Neurophysiology, and have published both books and
articles in various countries around the world.
Dr Kail can be reached at pkail@iname.com