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www.ambiente.us NOVEMBER |NOVIEMBRE 2008
Eating meat is prejudice against animals
By Michael McGraw
As an openly gay man and an employee of People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals (PETA), an international nonprofit animal rights
organization, I’m optimistic that the new Social Justice High School
–Pride Campus in Chicago—the city’s first school for gay, lesbian and
transgender teenagers—can help strengthen the bridge between gay
rights advocates and animal rights activists. That’s why I wrote to the
assistant principal of Social Justice High School and asked him to offer
only vegetarian fare at the Pride Campus.
Oppression—regardless of the species or sexual orientation of the victim—is wrong. To truly succeed in
teaching tolerance and fighting oppression, the Pride Campus needs to keep prejudice out of its classrooms
and off its plates.
It’s only because of prejudice that animals killed for food suffer miserable lives and nightmarish deaths.
Their feelings are entirely discounted, even though they experience fear, love, grief, joy and pain, just as all of
us do. On factory farms, animals are torn from their families and denied every natural urge, forced to live in
cramped, filthy warehouses for their entire lives. They never get to feel the warmth of the sun on their backs,
breathe fresh air, feel grass beneath their feet or play.
Believe it or not, in our “enlightened society,” chickens’ and turkeys’ throats are cut while they are still
conscious, and they are often scalded to death in de-feathering tanks. Cows are castrated, branded with hot
irons and de-horned. Pigs’ tails and testicles are cut off without any painkillers. When fish are dragged from
the ocean depths, they undergo decompression—which causes their internal organs to rupture—before they
suffocate.
Animals’ lives are as important to them as our lives are to us. We must reflect on—and ultimately reject—
what animals are forced to go through every day just because they seem “different” from us. Our choices can
either perpetuate injustice and discrimination or help bring about fairness and open-mindedness.
Leaders of social justice movements have historically recognized that the liberation of one oppressed group
is linked to the liberation of other groups. Steven Simmons, a respected PETA staffer and gay rights activist
who died of AIDS back in the mid-1990s, wrote, “It’s time for us to end this hierarchy of who has the right to
live, who deserves not to suffer, who should be respected, [the idea] that there’s a limit to the amount of
compassion that we can have for our fellow creatures.”
Just as it is wrong to oppress and abuse other humans, it is wrong to oppress and abuse animals. Because
animals are unable to defend themselves, we must stand up for them, just as we want good people to speak
out against the oppression of gays and lesbians.
Social Justice High School encourages students to embrace each unique individual. Shouldn't it also teach
them to have compassion for today’s most vulnerable beings—animals? We can all help bring about
progressive change in the way that animals are treated simply by rejecting the violence of factory farms and
slaughterhouses and eating healthy and humane vegetarian meals.
Michael McGraw is the director of media relations for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), 501
Front St., Norfolk, VA 23510; www.PETA.org.
Copyright © PETA & AMBIENTE MAGAZINE. Do not reproduce without citing this source
Eating meat is prejudice against animals
By Michael McGraw
As an openly gay man and an employee of People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals (PETA), an international nonprofit animal rights
organization, I’m optimistic that the new Social Justice High School
–Pride Campus in Chicago—the city’s first school for gay, lesbian and
transgender teenagers—can help strengthen the bridge between gay
rights advocates and animal rights activists. That’s why I wrote to the
assistant principal of Social Justice High School and asked him to offer
only vegetarian fare at the Pride Campus.
Oppression—regardless of the species or sexual orientation of the victim—is wrong. To truly succeed in
teaching tolerance and fighting oppression, the Pride Campus needs to keep prejudice out of its classrooms
and off its plates.
It’s only because of prejudice that animals killed for food suffer miserable lives and nightmarish deaths.
Their feelings are entirely discounted, even though they experience fear, love, grief, joy and pain, just as all of
us do. On factory farms, animals are torn from their families and denied every natural urge, forced to live in
cramped, filthy warehouses for their entire lives. They never get to feel the warmth of the sun on their backs,
breathe fresh air, feel grass beneath their feet or play.
Believe it or not, in our “enlightened society,” chickens’ and turkeys’ throats are cut while they are still
conscious, and they are often scalded to death in de-feathering tanks. Cows are castrated, branded with hot
irons and de-horned. Pigs’ tails and testicles are cut off without any painkillers. When fish are dragged from
the ocean depths, they undergo decompression—which causes their internal organs to rupture—before they
suffocate.
Animals’ lives are as important to them as our lives are to us. We must reflect on—and ultimately reject—
what animals are forced to go through every day just because they seem “different” from us. Our choices can
either perpetuate injustice and discrimination or help bring about fairness and open-mindedness.
Leaders of social justice movements have historically recognized that the liberation of one oppressed group
is linked to the liberation of other groups. Steven Simmons, a respected PETA staffer and gay rights activist
who died of AIDS back in the mid-1990s, wrote, “It’s time for us to end this hierarchy of who has the right to
live, who deserves not to suffer, who should be respected, [the idea] that there’s a limit to the amount of
compassion that we can have for our fellow creatures.”
Just as it is wrong to oppress and abuse other humans, it is wrong to oppress and abuse animals. Because
animals are unable to defend themselves, we must stand up for them, just as we want good people to speak
out against the oppression of gays and lesbians.
Social Justice High School encourages students to embrace each unique individual. Shouldn't it also teach
them to have compassion for today’s most vulnerable beings—animals? We can all help bring about
progressive change in the way that animals are treated simply by rejecting the violence of factory farms and
slaughterhouses and eating healthy and humane vegetarian meals.
Michael McGraw is the director of media relations for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), 501
Front St., Norfolk, VA 23510; www.PETA.org.
Copyright © PETA & AMBIENTE MAGAZINE. Do not reproduce without citing this source
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