Perhaps, there might be something good to come from the heinous Michael Vick scandal (source: Los Angeles Times) in the longrun after all; increased animal rights awareness…

Some of my favorite “snippets” from an interesting article by the New York Times‘ Kim Severson entitled “Bringing Moos and Oinks Into the Food Debate“:

“… more than a thousand animals once destined for the slaughterhouse live here and on another Farm Sanctuary property in California. Farm Sanctuary has a $5.7 million budget, fed in part by a donor club named after his beloved Hilda. Supporters can sign up for a Farm Sanctuary MasterCard. A $200-a-seat gala dinner in Los Angeles this fall will feature seitan Wellington and stars like Emily Deschanel and Forest Whitaker.

As Farm Sanctuary has grown, so too has its influence. Soon, due in part to the organization’s work, veal calves and pregnant pigs in Arizona won’t be kept in cages so tight they can’t turn around. Eggs from cage-free hens have become so popular that there is a national shortage. …”

(Snip!)

“… Among animal rights groups, the 1980s were considered the decade of grass-roots activism. The 1990s saw the rise of court actions and ballot initiatives. This decade is about building budgets, influencing policy and cultivating elected officials, all with a deliberate focus on livestock. …”

(Snip!)

“… But in recent years they have adopted more subtle tactics, like holding stock in major food corporations, organizing nimble political campaigns and lobbying lawmakers.

While some groups, like the Animal Welfare Institute, work with ranchers to codify the best methods of raising animals for meat and eggs, most, like Farm Sanctuary and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, ultimately want people to stop using even wool and honey because they believe the products exploit living creatures. …”

Okay, hold UP — ain’t gonna happen. I’m going to continue enjoying honey as long as there are still honey bees around, which, of course, is a HUGE question lately (for those of you who didn’t realize they seem to be mysteriously disappearing). And while we’re at it, PETA can stick it where “the sun don’t shine” if they think they’re going to be shaming me into avoiding wool anytime soon. Anyone who cohabitates with a couple of huge standard poodles understands what a relief it is to them when they receive their monthly “haircuts”. In fact, all I have to do is mention the word “haircuts” to them and they go NUTS and their tails start wagging like crazy in anticipation of the ritual.

Now, let’s just say for the sake of argument, poodle fur was a commodity I could sell to people in Greenland because it was a Greenlander’s preferred way of insulating themselves from the cold. I’d not have any problem at all with selling a Greenland capitalist a couple of grocery bags per month full of poodle fur, were that the case. And, WERE that the case; we all WIN. Unfortunately, for now, I must continue to lose about a buck-twenty per month on the deal and only the poodles and the groomer win.

And, don’t EVEN bring up the subject of meat. Ted Nugent, I am not. On the other hand, I’m not bent toward strict vegetarianism either; nor am I particularly fond of the fact that an animal has to give its life in order for me to nourish myself on its flesh. I will say THIS though: anybody who would rob any living creature of dignity, respect, and humane treatment, including but not limited to slaughterhouse animals is not worthy of dining upon the mud beneath the toes of a swine.

Back off my soapbox for a moment, and back to Kim Severson’s:

“… But all of these believers have learned that with less stridency comes more respect and influence in food politics. So they no longer concentrate their energy on burning effigies of Colonel Sanders and stealing chickens. They don’t demonize meat — with the exception of foie gras and veal — or the people who produce it. Instead, they use softer rhetoric, focusing on a campaign even committed carnivores can get behind: better conditions for farm animals. …”

And, that’s ME. Congrats for finally reaching ME for once, PETA…

“… “Instead of telling it like it is, we’re learning to present things in a more moderate way,” Mr. Baur said. “When it comes to this vegan ideal, that’s an aspiration. Would I love everyone to be vegan? Yes. But we want to be respectful and not judgmental.”

Certainly, concerns over health and food safety, and a growing interest in where food comes from among consumers and chefs, has made animal welfare an easier sell. …”

Now, I’m going to sound like a Wiccan, which I am not, but they are a group for which I have a TREMENDOUS amount of respect; largely because of their non-hypocritical respect for life — ALL forms of life. To me, it is a bit hypocritical for the “Vegans” to graze the world without remorse while protecting even the most annoying bugs in our lives, despite the fact that everytime a Vegan takes a step on this Earth, a Vegan kills a bug. It’s easy to overlook that fact if you are a “selective life lover”, but it IS a fact, indeed. Just because you don’t see them doesn’t absolve you from the fact you kill life forms everytime you move your body.

Respect for LIFE is respect for LIFE… ALL forms of it, including PLANT life. If these “PETA” types will look and listen VERY closely, they will see there is an intelligence in plant life as well as in animal life. Plants ALSO feel pain; I am convinced of that. Gardens that are LOVED by their caretakers do better than gardens that are allowed to be overrun by weeds. Pulling a weed from that garden is terminating a life; pure and simple — a “catch 22″ — unavoidable, too. Picking a tomato from your well-tended garden is no different than pulling the tail off of a lizard. It may grow back, but I’m CONVINCED it hurts. Life is LIFE.

Where do these people draw the line with their agendas? “Would I love everyone to be vegan? Yes.“?, one of the subjects of the article states pompously. That’s all well and good, but what happens when somebody to THEIR left; somebody like myself (at times), who understands it is simply a sad (and I do mean that, by the way) fact of life that, in order for one organism to live, other organisms must DIE; and that EVERY living organism has its own level of intelligence, other organisms who care about it, and most likely, feels sorrow and happiness, regardless of whether or not it has two eyes, two ears, any number of legs, and a nose?

Still with me, or did I lose you by now? Assuming you’re still with me, I now pass you back to The NYT’s Kim Severson once again:

“… “I think there is a shift in public consciousness,” said Bruce Friedrich, vice president of international grass-roots campaigns for PETA. “When Cameron Diaz learns that pigs are smarter than 3-year-olds and she’s like, ‘Oh my God, I’m eating my niece,’ that has an impact.” …”

And, again — perhaps, Michael Vick, the disgraced (former) quarterback of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons has helped raise awareness in this arena as well. While I will remind PETA and their clones to stay out of my dinner plate AGAIN, I will also say it’s a great thing their activism is finally having an impact upon the ethical treatment of animals. A few more “clicks” to the right and they’ll be right about where they NEED to be in terms of impact. Any further to the left than they are and (again) they risk being exposed as people who have ZERO respect for our plant life and only SELECTIVE respect for animal, bird and insect life, as I’ve already pointed out above. I cannot begin to even LIST the folks I personally know who call themselves “Vegans”, yet make exceptions for fish and fowl, just for another example of this hypocrisy.

Oh, yes — there IS a “fine line”, indeed; between plant life and animal life, isn’t there, dear readers? This YouTube video clearly makes my point; only one of NUMEROUS examples, by the way:

If Greenpeace and PETA don’t watch themselves and the separate directions they’re heading these days, it just MIGHT not be too long before violent battles between these two groups begin to break out. Case in point: many “PETA” types would have crushed the plant in the YouTube video above beneath their Birkenstocks to get to a plate full of fresh salmon or quail while the “Greenpeace” types watched in horror. Were they (the former) to have seen it before they stepped on it, they’d have most likely paused for a moment to yank it out of the soil to toss it into a boiling pot of water for their consumption anyway.

My point is — either way; the living, breathing, feeling plant you see in the video above LOSES when we leave its fate in the hands of the “Vegan”; the VERY same Vegan who would see the carnivore burnt at the stake. Let us not forget to keep things in perspective, folks, while remaining as noble as possible…

And, I challenge you to THINK about what you’ve just read and seen here for a moment.

***

Thanks to MemeOrandum for selecting this as a Featured Post -

And thanks to our friends at The Moderate Voice for selecting this article to be added to their Center Of Attention roundup -

Our Most Controversial Posts

• Another GTL Guest Column: “Were You There When The Lights Went Out…” — By Charlotte Wilson
• The GTL™ Sunday Guest Column — “GO BACK TO YOUR OWN COUNTRY!!!” By Christopher L. Doster
• The GTL™ Sunday Guest Column — “Punch Drunk Boxer” By Christopher L. Doster
• Sarah Palin Goes “Barracuda” At Republican Governors Association Press Conference; Offending Some Whom Aspire For The Next Presidency