Debbie Schlussel: Animal Rights Professor: Eating Meat Worse Than Vick's Dogfighting
Leave it to an animal rights freak to find an absurd angle to the Michael Vick dogfighting story.
Peter Singer, the famed Princeton University Professor--who believes that animals are equal to humans (if not superior) and should have legal rights--is interviewed by The New Republic (where I was once an intern, for Fred Barnes and Mort Kondracke). In the interview, Singer disagrees with the NBA's Stephon Marbury that hunting is equal to dogfighting, because in hunting animals are killed instantly and experience far less pain.
But the punchline is that Singer says those of us who eat meat are committing a more heinous act than either dogfighting or hunting. He says this is because animals are kept in poor conditions and meet painful ends in meat processing factories.
Forgive me for my ignorance. But this is worse than drowning and throwing dogs to the ground in an effort to murder them, as Vick did? And this is worse than training dogs to maul and cut and bite each other to their deaths? This isn't a matter of nuance. There's a huge difference in the levels of cruelty between dog-fighting and eating meat. Night and day. And in the opposite direction from which Professor Singer sees it.
Sorry, but the animal rights crowd is off its collective rocker.
Posted by Debbie on August 30, 2007 11:32 AM to Debbie Schlussel