article from the Scripps Howard News Service.

[Guest guest]

More people are going meatless

By Bonnie Erbe

from the Arizona Daily Star Wednesday, March 22 2000

 

We Americans love our dogs and cats but make an

artificial distinction between fidos and felines and

other domesticated animals such as Bessie and Miss

Piggy.

 

Can you imagine how horrified we'd be if every time we

watched a fellow American chomp down on a McDonald's

hamburger it were made of cat, dog or hamster meat?

What if Burger King started selling Beagle Burgers or

Fido Franks?

 

Wouldn't millions of us take to the streets in horror

just as millions of Americans tourists are revolted

during a first visit to France or Belgium upon

discovering that French and Belgian restaurants find

it perfectly normal to serve horse meat?

 

Because of the revulsion this writer has come to feel

for eating animal flesh, she looked forward with

eagerness to The Great American Meatout Monday.

 

The meatout was launched 15 years ago to provide

American consumers a one-day respite, organizers

said, from the " meat industry's relentless propaganda

in schools, food markets and the mass media. "

 

Skipping one day of meat consumption is good.

Skipping a lifetime of it is better. Not only for the

farm animals, but for human animals as well.

 

Vegetarianism boosts heart health and cuts our death

rate from heart disease, stroke and cancer. It lowers

our death rate, too, from salmonella poisoning, E.

coli and Campylobacteria, which take 9,000 lives each

year and sicken millions more.

 

Then there are the moral reasons to kick the meat

habit. Take veal, one of the most cruelly produced of

all meats, as well as one of the most harmful to

humans.

 

Would you knowingly serve your family sulfa drugs,

clenbuterol, penicillin, tetracycline or drug

resistant strains of bacteria for dinner?

 

Most of us would answer no. Yet these and countless

other substances are now commonly found in veal.

 

The harsh conditions in veal factories result in

severe calf diseases.

 

By depriving veal calves of their mother's milk, fresh

air, exercise, adequate nutrition and proper

veterinary care, veal factories are a breeding ground

for stress and infectious diseases.

 

The life of a veal calf is one of pure misery, illness

and stress. According to the Humane Farming

Association, as soon as he is born, the veal calf is

taken from his mother and chained in a 22-inch by

58-inch crate where he spends his whole life without

being able to move, walk, turn around or lie down.

 

If he develops any muscles, his " meat " becomes less

tender and less 'tasty " for humans. Then, to grow the

light-colored meat sold as " milk-fed " veal, calves are

deliberately kept anemic and denied all solid food. As

a result, the calves suffer from chronic diarrhea,

respiratory and intestinal diseases.

 

If people knew dogs were being treated this way, most

of them would have fits. Yet they're perfectly willing

to go to fancy Italian restaurants and pay top dollar

for a veal dinner.

 

That is only because most Americans are blissfully

ignorant of how that tender piece of veal on their

plate was produced. If Americans were properly

informed of the cruelties perpetrated on these

innocent creatures, more would be righteously

incensed.

 

But even outrageous cruelties aside, I've never been

able to understand people's seemingly conflicting

abilities to love and treat as family certain types of

animals (i.e. dogs, cats, etc.) while eating other

animals (cattle, chickens, etc.).

 

They are able to completely disassociate themselves

from the meat in their mouths and the horrors those

other poor animals, who are just as lovable as the

pets they keep at home, went through to be processed

into food.

 

The good news is, more and more Americans are seeing

the causal relationship. According to the Great

American Meatout, more than 30 million of us have

explored a meatless diet. National beef and veal

consumption have dropped by 25 and 70 percent

respectively in the last few years.

 

And these trends will continue, because vegetarianism

is even more popular among teen-agers. I knew there

was something about this generation I really liked a

lot.

 

Bonnie Erbe, host of the PBS program " To the

Contrary, " writes for Scripps Howard News Service.