Friday, August 31, 2007

Michael Vick and the Question of Animal Cruelty

How interesting. Did you notice how many people are enraged at Michael Vick? That is a pretty horrible thing, dogfighting. Animal cruelty. So how many years should he get in jail, how much should it cost him? Looks like he will lose at least $100,000,000 of his football contract.

I don't think anyone reading this blog would accept what he did as morally acceptable. Now, I have to ask you: when was the last time you had eggs, or milk, or chicken, or pork, or beef, or fish? If you read the book The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter, by Peter Singer and Jim Mason, you will realize that if you are eating these animal products, you might want to place yourself in the same moral category as Michael Vick, because your food choices are producing as much and more animal suffering.

Unfortunately, most of us will utilize the psychological tools called denial and rationalization to avoid confronting this unpleasant fact.

I am not telling anyone to become a vegan tomorrow, just asking you to think about it. If Michael Vick disgusts us, maybe it's time to look at our own actions.

I haven't reached the point where I can avoid all animal products myself, but I am no longer in denial either, as regards to what I am doing. When I make my green smoothie in a few minutes I will be taking one big step along the way to making that change. You would be very surprised how good kale and watermelon can taste after a few minutes in the Vita Mixer.

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