Well, I'm not up to writing a letter, but here's a couple of potential
talking points if somebody else wants to:
* Compassion is not a pie, that, once we give out a piece, we have less
to give out. Our ability to empathize and be kind to animals does not
reduce our ability to treat humans well. Being a vegetarian does not
reduce your ability to alleviate human suffering.
* Also, few people act out entirely on what they believe to be the most
important social issues of the day. I doubt that anti-gay marriage
activists or people opposed to government wiretapping (you may be able to
think of better examples) think their issues are more important than human
poverty. They work on them because they care about them and want to make
a difference.
Unny
On Fri, 3 Feb 2006, Gregory J. Oschwald wrote:
Date: Fri, 03 Feb 2006 09:00:28 -0600
From: Gregory J. Oschwald <greg@ca4a.org>
To: "umntc@ca4a.org" <umntc@ca4a.org>
Subject: umntc-s: Letter to the editor
An anti letter. We should probably submit several positive letters.
Any volunteers?
http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2006/02/03/66963
*
Enough with the eggs*
The Daily's recent commitment to dedicating an absurd amount of
editorial space to the issue of how chickens are housed is
disappointing. With the editorial board's commitment to real social
change, it is disheartening to see them concentrating their efforts and
column space on attempts to make farmers be nicer to chickens.
One entry was particularly disturbing. On Tuesday, Nick Coughlin's
letter to the editor documented all of the atrocities suffered by the
poor chickens. He maintains that just because a company who raises
chickens keeps them healthy simply for profit, that somehow they are in
some sort of nebulous moral hole because their intentions are not pure.
The absurdity of this implication should raise eyebrows. Should we stop
using pharmaceuticals simply because the companies who produced them did
so strictly to make a profit?
Coughlin lists a number of the so called "outrageously cruel"
requirements of battery cages. Among them are clean enclosures,
continuous access to clean drinking water and adequate access to food.
There are literally hundreds of millions of people on this earth who
don't have access to clean houses, clean drinking water and enough food
to fill their stomachs.
I suggest that before we start worrying about the well-being of animals
which may or may not be even capable of emotion, we get our own house in
order. It is time to look at the suffering of people before we look at
the "suffering" of some chickens.
/Tom Meyer
University undergraduate
chairman, Campus Conservative Cultural Program/
--
Unny Nambudiripad
Treasurer, Compassionate Action for Animals
612-377-2015 (h) / 612-532-4239 (c)
www.exploreveg.org / www.vegguide.org
