Ethics of Slaughter

“I did not like the world,” (Duchovny, p. 40).

I think this book is weird, eccentric, and strange in all the wrong ways. It makes me feel like I’m reading the narration of a madman’s nonsensical dream. However, I do enjoy the fact that the animals in the book are given a sentient stream of consciousness. They are portrayed as dynamic characters with emotions and opinions, exactly like that of a human being.

Throughout the majority of my life, some of the most meaningful relationships I’ve had have been with animals. They have been as impactful as any human relationship, I think. I’ve seen hamsters and rats with unique personalities; I’ve seen ferrets solve problems; I’ve cats grieve; I’ve seen horses fall in love; I’ve seen dogs miss people when they leave and be overjoyed when they come back. I’ve even seen cows hide their calves so that they won’t be taken away. Yet, the world at large exploits animals to an unhealthy degree, disregarding their intelligence because the meat on their bones pays the bills.

This isn’t me preaching for everyone to go vegan. I believe everyone has the right to eat, and for many carnivores, that means someone has die. And, since humans are scientifically classified as omnivores, I believe we also have the right to eat a mixture of meats and plants. However, I also believe that humans have taken this give-and-take system and, by slaughtering these animals on such a massive scale, the act is now detrimental to the ethics of taking a life for food, because it’s not just for food now. It’s for profit.

Taking any life should never boil down to how much money can be gained from that animal. It should always be whether or not this animal will feed people. So many food industries have lost sight of that. All lives mean something, yet the world we live in tries to state the opposite, that’s why this quote speaks so much to me.