[Surfside] (no subject)

[Paul Makepeace]

Michael Pollan's article on humans' relationship with animals summarizes
the principle moral ideas of the various camps, from the capitalist
factories to animal rights campaigners as a series of quite entertaining
defensive rebuttals to the books he's reading at dinner (steak), _Animal
Liberation_ by Peter Singer.

There is some insightful commentary on the paradox of vegetarianism and
veganism that adoption of those practices would cause more animal deaths
than by a carnivorous diet. Veganism still results in deaths of field
mice in wheat harvesters.

The overall view is not that killing animals is necessarily bad but that
their suffering during their life is something to be avoided (which as
it happens is my view since I started eating chickens again when I
arrived in Texas).

 `` For any animal, happiness seems to consist in the opportunity to
    express its creaturely character -- its essential pigness or
    wolfness or chickenness.''

In that vein he investigates a farm where various animals, chickens,
pigs, etc are rotated in the land in a symbiotic manner. He even
watches some slaughtering. Fascinating stuff.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/10/magazine/10ANIMAL.html (11 webpages)

Paul


-- 
Paul Makepeace ....................................... http://paulm.com/

"If cats were gods, then all would be revealed."
   -- http://paulm.com/toys/surrealism/