The C-Word

One of the most irrational-posing-as-rational reasons for using nonhuman animals, causing them suffering, terrorizing them, and ultimately killing them, is culture, and it’s sibling, tradition. For example:

• "Bullfighting is part of our culture," says the Spaniard.
• "Eating turkey is a Thanksgiving tradition," says everyone who knows me, thinking that maybe on Thanksgiving I’ll eat some turkey because that’s what Americans do on Thanksgiving.
• "I don’t have a problem with the way Native Americans treat animals; their culture and traditions speak to their feeling of connectedness and respect for animals," says just about everyone, and is the first line of defense/offense when debating an Animal Person.
• "We eat horse meat; it’s part of our culture," says the woman from Japan or France or Belgium.
• "We don’t eat horses, here; they’re a national treasure," says the American.

Do you see the problem? Anything goes when posed under the umbrella of culture. Every part of culture that we have come to defend is something that began in a certain historical context. Take, for instance, what I perceive is the most sensitive topic: the culture of Native Americans. We’ve taken enough from them (like, everything, and every time I think about it I’m embarrassed to be of European descent). But they’re not so different from the earliest European settlers (stay with me) in that they used animals in a way that benefited them and weren’t in the business of institutionalized terror and cruelty for profit. They were simply doing what they thought they had to do to get what they needed and make it through the day.

Fast forward to 2007. Notice that the terrain is a bit different than it was 400 years ago. Most of us don’t use horses for transportation anymore (not because it’s not right, because we have more efficient modes of transportation). We don’t need to use horses (not that we needed to back then, but doing so no doubt made everyone get places a bit faster). And guess what else? In 2007, we don’t need to eat meat. In fact, study after study shows that the way we raise animals for food has not only harmed the environment, but it has polluted our bodies. Yet we continue to do it. Why? Because we accept that it’s part of our culture. We don’t question it just as we don’t question why we eat cows and not dogs. Americans have been inculcated (enculturated) to find the eating of dogs anathema to us. But is the actual eating of dogs really different from the eating of cows (once you remove the culture part that says dogs are pets and cows aren’t)?

One of the traits that perhaps sets us apart from the nonhuman animal world (and we don’t really know this for certain and probably never will) is that we are able to make decisions based on some kind of moral code. And I’m not referring to religious doctrine. This capacity for a moral code is why when someone says:

In the animal world, there’s a cycle, and animals eat each other and are all part of the food chain and we’re at the top, so we can do whatever we want,

the response that shuts them down in a nanosecond is:

Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should. In fact, because we have options and we don’t need to eat them, our moral compass should tell us that to do so wouldn’t be right.

The consciousness of humanity won’t be able to evolve as long as it clings to ideas and behaviors borne out of an entirely different time. We need to have discussions about how we behave that are based on what we have the ability to do now, and the knowledge that we have now.