Speciesism and "My Pet" Caprice
A New Yorker-style cartoon depicting a couple eating a fish dinner in their living room while their pet fish in a tank wore black arm bands illustrated the "pet" conundrum in the animal movement. Loving some animals and eating others of the same species. So did reports that a Korean dog meat provider himself had a pet dog.
What makes one animal a "pet" and others dinner? Why is a pig food when many report porcine cognitive abilities comparable to a dog?
Critics liken such dissonance and hypocrisy in the animal world to enslaved people cooking for "ol master" and raising his children in the Big House while their families toiled and died in the fields.
Cleaner, Kinder Alternatives
Today, many would be aghast if piano keys were still made of elephant ivory--or waste baskets from elephant feet. Who would tolerate rabbits killed every time a pregnancy test was conducted? Even "real" fur coats are on their way out with so many desirable alternatives.
Yet replacements for barbarism in other places, especially food, is actively fought for economic reasons.
Plant-based and cultured meat (from living animal cells) are disparaged as "fake meat" by the meat industry and the news outlets living on meat ad revenue. It is even illegal to sell cultured meat in some states with sellers facing jail time. The reason is clear. Big Meat doesn't want non-rural operations like Silicon Valley stealing its business model despite the greenhouse gasses, water temperature elevation and destruction of aquatic ecosystems its business causes. Still, some Big Meat companies, are embracing slaughter-free meats thanks to buyers' environmental and cruelty concerns.
Did piano keyboard makers who used ivory lose money? Happily yes.
The Animal Rights and Right-To-Life Movements Have Something in Common
There are few political links between the animal rights and right-to-life movements which often camp out on opposite sides of the aisle. Yet the two movements share a huge and common obstacle: conjuring up empathy for the beings they defend.
Don't people hear the heartbeat of the growing fetus lament right-to-life activists? Don't people see the struggling animal at slaughter ask animal rights activists?
Yes and no. From wars and slavery to slaughter and animal research, humans have an amazing gift to tamp down their empathy when a paycheck or social convention is involved.
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Can We Go 48 Hours Without AI or Animal Cruelty?
Last year, a New York Times article called "48 Hours Without A.I." revealed how enmeshed people's daily lives are with machine learning and generative artificial intelligence whether or not they realize it.
The author A.J. Jacobs said his pledge to avoid AI for two days altered the way he ate, the clothes he wore and even how he traveled because AI is everywhere.
Animal-based products are also unrecognized in our daily life from meat, eggs and dairy in food to lab-tested products on drugstore shelves. And that's before we get to commercial entertainment and fashion.
Decades ago, outrage about Third World rug weavers whose vision was impaired by their work led to boycotts of the implicated products. Yet boycotts of other products of suffering--"distressed" blue jeans which subject makers to fumes and burns in poor countries or farm animals mutilated for the dinner table-- don't happen. There's too much money in it.
(Article changed on Jun 30, 2026 at 11:29 AM EDT)
