“Animal-rights activists are using religious messages to recruit a segment of the millennial generation that has little doctrinal anchor, in order to advance their vegetarian agenda,” said Wes Jamison, an ordained Baptist minister and associate professor of communications at Palm Beach Atlantic University, addressing participants at the Animal Agriculture Alliance’s 8th Annual Stakeholders Summit, held this week in Alexandria, Va.
Jamison explained that two major factors are driving animal-rights groups’ attempts to engage people of faith. The first is that people motivated by religion tend to give generously, which is an important factor to the $400 million-a-year animal-rights industry. The second reason is that people motivated by religious zeal tend to have sustained intensity over time. This is a critical feature lacking from the current animal-rights movement, since many vegans and vegetarians tend to eventually return to an omnivorous diet.
Rye Harbour Nature Reserve
Rye Harbour Nature Reserve on a recent Sunday late afternoon.
When Vegans Move In Next Door
So, who are the vegans? What do they eat? Where do they live? Why do they do it? And, again, what do they eat?
Unlike women or men, children or adults, black or white, gays and lesbians (often obvious depending upon your gaydar), vegans are not always easy to spot on the street. They’re not always thin. Their complexion is not always pasty (Tip: British vegans most likely thin and wan but not Homo sapien veganicus Floridiana who are thin and tanned). They aren’t always dressed by the House of Oxfam. Shoes are often a dead give away. Invariably, they’re not leather. If they are, they’ll be on their last legs, metaphorically speaking, like a well-worn pair of slippers difficult to give up. One easy way to spot Homo sapien veganicus normalis is when they’re on the hunt for food at the local supermarket. They like to read labels. Brave ones will ask questions. On rare occasions you will hear the plaintive cry, Is this vegan?
Who are the vegans? I know I can’t always rely upon my vegdar. So, are they aging hippies? Post-modern punks? Sociologists? Bankers? I can’t believe they’re ever anyone important, like a medical doctor. They can’t have a sense of humour. So, they must be traffic wardens. I think call centres only employ them. They never have a sense of humour.
Is there a secret club, like that one with the handshakes? They must have a ritual they perform when they shun society? Isn’t there a planet Vegan? Is it beyond Uranus? Oh my God! My new neighbours! They must be vegan! No children. Lots of rescued cats. Digging up the flower bed to grow tomatoes. They recycle. Don’t go to church. I heard strange drumming sounds last night. That’s a dead give away.
Do they have a religious conversion? They must have a ceremony. I bet they ritually slice open a bag of whole wheat pasta bought at the nearest Whole Foods. Is there a vegan God sitting on a holy compost heap in heaven? Do they become saints? I hear they often act like ones.
They must have been normal people once? Will they want to convert me? Like my gay friend tried to get me into bed once? They must want to take over the world? And kill all us meat-eaters. I bet they secretly admire Stalin, and read up on him. Does this mean I won’t be able to have milk in my tea when they come round? I’m not giving my cheese up for anyone!
ASI’s New Policy Paper
Check out the new Policy Paper published by the Animals and Society Institute. It’s called Dolphin-Human Interaction Programs: Policies, Problems and Alternatives.
We conclude that current policy measures are inconsistent and deficient, and we offer alternative practices and policies to better advance the future well-being of both humans and dolphins.
Baby Gulls in Old Town Hastings
This not very good photograph was taken from the rear garden (Americans read: back yard) or terrace of the Grumpy Vegan’s seat. It shows four baby gulls presently living on a nearby rooftop. In fact, from where I’m presently seated and writing I can see them through the dining room window. Gull parents are exemplary. I wrote about gulls once before.
Grandin Review
The Grumpy Vegan thought this conclusion to a review of Temple Grandin’s new book with Catherine Johnson, Making Animals Happy, was, well, a tad sarcastic?
The simplicity of the writing and the clarity of her thinking are echoed in her afterword, in which she confronts the frequent questions about why she works in the meat industry. Her answer is that she can improve animals’ lives. Everything dies, she says logically; best make the deaths orderly and unfrightening. Becoming an individual vegetarian can’t solve cruelty to animals, and misunderstood dogs, left alone all day in the house, have a much worse quality of life than her cattle, she believes.
Her practical reasoning relies on Dr Panksepp’s theory of four core emotions [seeking, rage, fear and panic]. Most of us, however, would feel that emotions and behaviour (what we would call our and others’ selves) are immensely more complicated than that, and some wonder if this might not also be true of animals.
Though Grandin’s admirable and extraordinary work certainly makes life better for animals, her pragmatic approach to improving their conditions never questions the ability of us human animals to judge what is the best life for the non-human sort. And some would say that our assumed right to use all the other creatures for our own benefit by definition precludes us from knowing what is the best life for any creature but ourselves.
