{"id":1662,"date":"2014-03-27T15:55:09","date_gmt":"2014-03-27T05:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=1662"},"modified":"2014-03-26T15:57:38","modified_gmt":"2014-03-26T05:57:38","slug":"vet-ethics-considering-our-consumption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?p=1662","title":{"rendered":"Vet ethics: Considering our consumption"},"content":{"rendered":"On the recommendation of my vegan brother I read John Safran Foer\u2019s book <\/span>Eating Animals<\/i>, which as you may know or have just now guessed, prosecutes an argument against meat eating. Safran Foer is a popular American novelist, and his novels have been turned into movies. He also has a major in philosophy. Early in <\/span>Eating Animals<\/i> (and in an article in the <\/span>Wall Street Journal<\/i>), the writer tries out his own animal version of Swift\u2019s <\/span>A Modest Proposal<\/i>. In his case for \u201ctossing Fido in the oven\u201d, JSF introduces us to a mouth-watering recipe.<\/span>\r\n\r\nSTEWED DOG, FILIPINO WEDDING STYLE<\/i><\/span>\r\n\r\nFirst, kill a medium-sized dog, then burn off the fur over a hot fire. Carefully remove the skin while still warm and set aside (may be used in other recipes). Cut meat into 1\u201d cube. Marinate meat in mixture of vinegar, peppercorn, salt, and garlic for 2 hours. Fry meat in oil using a large wok over an open fire, then add onions and chopped pineapple and saut\u00e9 until tender. Pour in tomato sauce and boiling water, add green pepper, bay leaf, and Tabasco. Cover and simmer over warm coals until meat is tender. Blend in puree of dog\u2019s liver and cook for an additional 5-7 minutes<\/i>.<\/span>\r\n\r\nThis argument and its polemical deployment are hardly original, and the strategy will immediately annoy and alienate some people. Nevertheless, I think it\u2019s worth asking how we ought to respond to this familiar challenge. Clearly, it will not be much of a challenge for people with certain cultural backgrounds, such as those who are intimate with the Filipino Wedding recipe. Safran Foer is obviously addressing those of us who are inclined to view the above flavoursome recipe with an open mouth, but not a hungry one.<\/span>\r\n\r\nWe have a taboo against dog-eating just as we do against brother-sister incest and cannibalism. Even Anthony Bourdain says he avoids eating dog and cat. Yet, Safran Foer says, the Romans had \u201csuckling puppy\u201d, the Aztecs consumed the Mexican hairless dog, and the Chinese raised the Chow as tucker. The notions of taboos, of relativism, and of cultural tolerance may incline us away from moral criticism of foreign peoples. It may even move us away from condemnation of the prospect of dog-eating in our own culture and country. <\/span>\r\n\r\nOn the other hand, perhaps we believe we have good arguments against the raising of dogs for meat, arguments that will permit us to consistently justify doing just that with sheep, cattle, and pigs; arguments to help us escape the conclusion that it would surely be better for the environment and for commercial enterprise if the taboo was broken so we could contemplate eating the many surplus dogs (and cats) that are otherwise \u201cwastefully\u201d euthanized.<\/span>\r\n\r\nSo let us therefore consider, as our author urges, some arguments for retaining the moral status quo \u2013 that is, for eating some animals but not dogs. The question is, then, whether moral arguments for the status quo can be found which are successful, or whether the case against raising dogs for meat should yield to the dissolution of the \u201ctaboo\u201d. Some of the following argument\/replies come from Eating Animals<\/i>; others I have embellished or introduced.<\/span>\r\n\r\nArgument<\/i>: Dogs are pets\/companion animals. Reply<\/i>: They have that status here, but not in some other places. Nor does everyone have a companion dog. Nor are we prevented from having a system resembling that involving, say, lambs or piglets: this<\/i> one is\/was somebody\u2019s pet; that<\/i> one was raised to be eaten. <\/span>\r\n\r\nArgument<\/i>: Dogs are intelligent and emotional beings. Reply<\/i>: So, at least, are pigs. And pigs can bond with people who can bond with them. Anyway, what precisely is meant by \u201cintelligence\u201d? Isn\u2019t modern science telling us that there are different forms of intelligence for different forms of life? By that measure, isn\u2019t a sheep or a chicken as intelligent as a dog, or nearly so? Aren\u2019t farm animals capable also of emotion and feeling?<\/span>\r\n\r\nArgument<\/i>: Dogs co-evolved with humans and entered into a relation of mutual dependence. Reply<\/i>: We have noted that pigs can have close, intimate, and caring relations with humans (and other animals); a kind of mutual dependence. And what exactly is the ethical relevance of \u201cco-evolution\u201d? Humans co-evolved with bacteria! Are other creatures out in the cold merely because of a natural process? If you say, however, that there is a kind of pact with the canine \u2013 well, where is that contract asserted or written down? Did we promise that we would never farm and eat them? All<\/i> of us? <\/span>\r\n\r\nArgument<\/i>: Raising meat-dogs would inevitably be inhumane. Reply<\/i>: Are dogs so different to pigs that we can only farm the latter humanely? Wouldn\u2019t it be just as humane to farm a social animal like the dog? Unlike other dog-eating cultures, we do not beat<\/i> live animals until the meat is tender. Remember, as well, that \u201chumane\u201d would mean something like: reducing suffering just as far as efficient food production permits. And that definition of humane can certainly be made to fit the dog-eating case, even when the dogs are kept in farm cages and slaughtered at 8 months of age.<\/span>\r\n\r\nTo close JSF\u2019s argument: we either accept that dog-eating is morally acceptable or we conclude that other forms of meat-eating are unjustifiable. Can any of the readers help us to work through this argument? Send your thoughts to the editor: <\/span>luke.martin@vetmag.com.au<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/span>\r\n\r\nSIMON COGHLAN<\/span><\/strong>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the recommendation of my vegan brother I read John Safran Foer\u2019s book Eating Animals, which as you may know or have just now guessed, prosecutes an argument against meat eating. Safran Foer is a popular American novelist, and his novels have been turned into movies. He also has a major in philosophy. Early in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[843,99,306,85,307,312],"class_list":["post-1662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","tag-consumption","tag-dogs","tag-ethics","tag-opinion-2","tag-simon-coghlan","tag-vet-ethics"],"rise-blocks_total_comments":0,"rise-blocks_categories":[{"term_id":82,"name":"Opinion","slug":"opinion","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":83,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":94,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":82,"category_count":94,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Opinion","category_nicename":"opinion","category_parent":0}],"rise-blocks_excerpt":"On the recommendation of my vegan brother I read John Safran Foer\u2019s book Eating Animals, which as you may know or have just now guessed, prosecutes an argument against meat eating. Safran Foer is a popular American novelist, and his novels have been turned into movies. He also has a major in philosophy. Early in Eating Animals (and in an..","blog_post_layout_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","full":""},"categories_names":{"82":{"name":"Opinion","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?cat=82"}},"tags_names":{"843":{"name":"consumption","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=consumption"},"99":{"name":"dogs","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=dogs"},"306":{"name":"ethics","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=ethics"},"85":{"name":"opinion","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=opinion-2"},"307":{"name":"Simon Coghlan","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=simon-coghlan"},"312":{"name":"Vet Ethics","link":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/?tag=vet-ethics"}},"comments_number":"0","wpmagazine_modules_lite_featured_media_urls":{"thumbnail":"","cvmm-medium":"","cvmm-medium-plus":"","cvmm-portrait":"","cvmm-medium-square":"","cvmm-large":"","cvmm-small":"","full":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1662"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1664,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1662\/revisions\/1664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theveterinarian.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}