In class on Tuesday, we talked about how animals are viewed in Islam.
Some people are upset when they hear about animal sacrifices in the name of God, or Allah.
How terrible to do to an innocent animal, right?
And then we talked about how we Americans are in no position to judge others.
Think of everything we do to animals. Think of our slaughter houses. Think of all the grocery stores with meat cases. Even better, check out this link.... (not for the queasy)
McDonalds http://www.mccruelty.com/
This organization is trying to eliminate suffering of animals in the slaughter house. It is not possible to shut down slaughter houses. Animals consume other animals, and always have, that's not going to change.
But what we can do is try to treat the animals without cruelty or abuse.
I'm not sure, due to the mass numbers of animals killed for consumption each day, if that's really possible though.
According to this blog, http://animaldeathcount.blogspot.com/
" 62 billion animals died to feed Americans in 2010.
Over a lifetime, this amounts to 16,000 animals per meat eater."
In comparison, we are in no position to judge those who sacrifice a goat every once in a while.
(Although, do note that in the Middle East, they consume skinless meat as well. I'm aware that they slaughter animals for consumption as well, but no where near the scale of America. The purpose of this post is to reiterate that we all slaughter animals for different reasons: religion, meal, animal products, fur, etc.)
My advice is to be like the Buddha and minimize the amount of suffering you are responsible for.
In the mean time, check out some Middle Eastern etiquette!
http://www.cyborlink.com/besite/mideast.htm
I agree with the main point of your essay; there is essentially no difference between sacrificing animals and slaughtering them for consumption. I find it amazing that people could be so offended by animal sacrifice, but not blink an eye at the slaughterhouses in America. I suppose the problem with animal sacrifice is largely its association with barbaric tribal practices of the past; people who practice sarcophagy, it seems, are offended when people don't use animals explicitly for consumption. Modern Western society seems to justify meat consumption at the expense of severe animal cruelty.
ReplyDeleteI do disagree, however, with the view that we cannot get rid of slaughterhouses. Society is made up of individuals. The slaughterhouses will all fail if the majority, and preferably all of humanity, agrees that vegetarianism is preferable to the consumption of meat. You did miss a key point in that whole section about animals consuming other animals: not all animals consume other animals. As omnivores, we don't actually have to consume animal flesh; actually, humans are more biologically similar to herbivores than most other omnivores. As such, slaughterhouses are not necessary, but are, rather, a luxury of sorts.
I think that if a person is against animal abuse, they should become vegetarian. If a person finds that kicking a dog is unacceptable, they should be appropriately moved to find the slaughter of the more intelligent pigs to be equally, or perhaps more, unacceptable.