I have been asked many times why I don’t urge non-vegetarians to buy cage-free eggs or other supposedly cruelty-free meat. The shortest answer is simply that I support only the complete abolition of animal useage, nothing less.
But that response doesn’t make much sense to most people, so here is the long answer: I believe that animals were not put on this earth for human use any more that blacks were placed here for whites or women for men. Speciesism is as untolorable and cruel as racism and sexism.
This next part is where I really start losing people. I morally cannot support any form of animal cruelty. Cage-free eggs still suffer animal cruelty. “Cruelty-free” meat still suffers animal cruelty. This is the difference between abolitionists, like myself, and welfarists, like Peter Singer. Welfarists believe that any step is a step in the right direction. Vivisection is not a step in the right direction, though some welfarists believe it is. The only step a person can take in the right direction is to refrain from using animals for selfish reasons.
Telling people to consume meat that has been supposedly treated well, only makes the consumer’s concience feel better about their choice. If anything, cage-free eggs only promote the eating of eggs because they remove the guilt from a meal. Just because meat is “happy” is not an excuse to eat it. “Happy Meat” doesn’t exist, it is the meat industry’s way of gaining more customers.
Consider your choices. Which is better: meat with a (fictional) promise, or no meat at all?
