Listen to this NOW
Angus Taylor directed me to this Canadian radio show, which might not be available too much longer, and you have GOT to listen to it. Scroll down to "Part 3-Carnivore Chic," an interview by a former vegetarian (Matt Galloway) OF a former vegetarian (author Susan Bourette) about how to be a compassionate carnivore. After that interview is one with a butcher who is also a former vegetarian.
Everyone has a grand ol’ time, the mood is light and jocular (Bourette says "Bacon is like pig candy"), and we learn that eating animals is fine and fun and in fact vegetarians and compassionate carnivores should not be at odds at all (that gem comes out in the interview with the butcher at The Healthy Butcher).
Can you be a compassionate carnivore, asks the interviewer? E-mail your thoughts to Soundslikecanada@cbc.ca.
UPDATE (thanks Angus!):
That first link to "Carnivore Chic" is down, but it’s now available at the podcast page. Click on http://www.cbc.ca/soundslikecanada/podcast.html and then scroll down to the March 17 link, or simply access that link directly: http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/slc_20080317_5031.mp3.
Sorry, Mary, I think I’d rather listen to a bunch of troops engaged in ethnic cleansing joke about popping bullets into their victims while they scream in terror – it’s repugnant and not worth my time.
Freud’s “Id” still thrives, showing no signs of weakening in our ape species.
I agree with Dan.
Compassionate carnivore is an oxymoron. I don't need to listen to the show to know that.
I think we should start calling ourselves ex-carnivores instead of vegans. They seem to prefer listening to exes.
For me, this is about activism. It's about sending an e-mail to SoundsLikeCanada, and demonstrating you've listened by responding to the contents of the interviews. That's a great way to get greater circulation of our message. Perhaps they'll read responses on the air and you'll/we'll help more people think critically about the ridiculous oxymoron "compassionate carnivore."
The problem is, we’re not going to get an honest or fair hearing or airing with them – they’re obviously not serious about the issue. I’d much rather ignore idiots than offer them fodder for controversy to pump their show ratings.
For me, the bottom line is to encourage and recognize the positive and ignore the negative.
Here's the e-mail that I sent to "Sounds Like Canada". I don't know whether it has been, or will be, read over the air:
Can one be a compassionate carnivore? To answer that question, I suggest a thought experiment. Let's imagine that we clone mentally handicapped human babies (so that there are no relatives to worry about them). We treat the babies well, make sure they are healthy, fatten them up on organic diets, and then at age two or three, butcher them (humanely, of course) and serve the meat in fine restaurants. Would we have done anything wrong?
Surely it cannot be right to treat any creature, human or not, mentally sophisticated or not, who can suffer, enjoy sunshine and a warm place to sleep, and seek companionship — in short, to treat anyone who has a life of their own — as an object whose existence amounts to nothing more than an ingredient in a tasty meal.
Here's my e-mail:
I'm a vegan who spent an entire year (nearly a decade ago) eating grass-fed filet mignon, and sometimes wild salmon. I'm back to veganism and can say that though I sought out animal products from cows who weren't pumped up with steroids and who ate their natural diets on a range, and salmon who were in the wild, at no point did I consider myself "compassionate." That's a delusion touted by people who either are in denial or aren't considering the whole picture because that would be inconvenient.
When you create someone to dominate and control their life, only so you can take their life when you choose, that is not compassion. And yanking anyone from their natural life to slaughter them when that is not necessary, as is the case for the anyone wild-caught, isn't compassionate either.
I would change the phrase from "compassionate carnivore" to "delusional carnivore." Taking someone's life when you don't need to should never be called compassion.
I listened to the interview – one of the immediate turn-off's for me was the "joke" about cheating on her vegan boyfriend when he was away. It sounds like a childish/negative relationship to me…..
Recently my husband and I discussed my sister – who also eats "happy meat" – although she feels very bad about it….. What???? We've come to the conclusion that compassion – if it's real is acted upon. In other words you can only have compassion if the emotion moves you to action. A compassionate carnivore is about as hypocritical as it gets. There's the moral schizophrenia again! Delusional moral schizophrenia!