If you’re sitting there condemning Michael Vick, you may want to take a long look in the mirror.

Now, I’m not writing this to try and even begin to defend Michael Vick’s alleged (God I hate it that you’re supposed to say that) actions. They were barbaric. They were despicable. They were without conscience. Quite frankly, I’ve been very suspect of Vick’s intelligence ever since the water bottle incident. I mean, really?

However, I don’t think that most of us can sit back and talk about how bad of a person he is and how terrible he is, without first acknowledging that we too are guilty of, at least, negligence, if not conspiracy.

Do you know where your food comes from?

Are you aware of The Colonel’s secret recipe ?

You hear about how pigs on factory farms are kept and treated?

You enjoy veal? Foie Gras?

Do you know we use animals to test fun products like tasers?

Chickens definitely seem to get it the worst.

I could continue to link to articles and videos until the cows come home (pun intended), but I won’t. You can go to YouTube and see as much animal blood as your heart so desires. And if the reality is too much, Sustainable Table made a short little movie called The Meatrix, just so they could make animal cruelty palatable enough for the masses. Most people turn those disgusting videos off and choose not to think about them. It’s easier that way.

Now, I’m not an expert, but I have done some homework, and if you really look into it, we eat a lot of food every day that comes from tortured, mutilated animals. And we know this. We just don’t want to think about it. Have I eaten and enjoyed all of these products? Yes. But, I have to tell you, after reading and learning about a lot of these practices, I’m changing some things about my behavior.

Really, at the end of the day, among the plethora of mistakes Michael Vick made, the biggest mistake, the mistake that’s going to likely cost him his career in Atlanta and maybe the NFL, is that his actions resulted in many deaths of America’s sacred cow: the dog. Nearly every culture has an animal held in high esteem (except, it seems, for the Chinese), and for ours, it’s the dog. (For instance, this would not be tolerated in India.) If Michael Vick had been cock fighting in Louisiana, then he’d be A-okay.

We care more about dogs than we do any other animal. Even though we know that veterinarians consider pigs as smart or smarter than dogs, we choose not to worry, or not to think, about their well being. We know that all of these animals can feel. Yet, we allow them to be tortured and brutalized so that we can have them put on our dinner table. And it’s completely unnecessary. The only argument you could make is that these animals don’t have a soul and can’t feel. But if you believe that, then you have to believe it for dogs too.

Do I honestly think that we are all guilty of conspiracy? Well, some of these companies definitely are. They know what they’re doing, and they know it isn’t right. They’re doing it to be efficient. And food shouldn’t be efficient. There are lives at stake. And in the long run, it’s not any more efficient, because we pay for it with our health.

Negligence is defined as “careless, inattentive, neglectful, willfully blind.” In my opinion, we intentionally avoid the reality of this situation, thus we are partly responsible for the way these animals are treated. Of course, technically, they haven’t committed conspiracy and we haven’t committed negligence because there are no strict laws in place for the treatment of these animals, but to me, that’s just semantics. We’re guilty. And we know it. Additionally, there should be laws in place, and they should be strict, like they are with inhumane treatment of dogs.

Look, I know this all might piss you off, but the reason is, deep down, you know that I’m right. You’ve read Fast Food Nation or seen some of these horrible videos, and yet, you and I don’t look into where our chicken, beef or pork comes from. We all allow it to happen. And I think that has to stop. We have to start caring. And moreover, we have to ask our government to stop allowing these practices to persist. Micro changes are fine. You and I can do our part. But just like going green, no real changes are going to happen until we get the government to force them to happen on a macro level.

Is this a call to action for everyone to be vegetarian? No. We’re omnivores, plus, I enjoy BBQ, burgers, fried chicken and steak too much to ever stop eating it…or to ask or tell anyone else they shouldn’t.

This is a call for awareness. If we all refuse to eat meat from animals that have been mistreated, then it can make a difference. If we ask the government and these companies to stop allowing these things to happen, it can make a difference. It also benefits true farmers rather than these factory farms…which are not farms. Warehouses on farmland do not a farm make. That’s why I’m proud to work with Chipotle. Their goal is incremental change. It can’t change overnight, but bit by bit, we can make a difference.

It’s awareness that leads to things like Farm Sanctuary. It’s awareness that leads to changes in the law.

Sure, you can argue, “Why does it matter? They are all going to die anyway.” It’s a rather heartless position, but you can argue it. My response would be: So do you. So do I. So do dogs. We all die. Isn’t how we live important? Doesn’t it matter?

I’ve never been a big fan of PETA. Similar to Michael Moore, their tactics many times lead to the story being more about them than the change they are trying to affect. However, at least they are consistent. They’ve been talking about these issues for years, and until recently, I, along with many others, have selectively decided not to listen. And that’s where the negligence comes in.

Am I judging you? Well, I’m judging all of us. I’m not good enough about it either…but I’m starting to try.

You may say, “But Michael Vick took pleasure in the dog fighting. He enjoyed the brutality.” Do you not enjoy chicken or beef or pork? Never? My guess is the majority of people would say yes. And terrible, terrible things happen to many of those poor animals so they can provide you with sustenance. They give their lives so that you can be nourished. Don’t you think that we owe it to them to provide them with at least a decent existence on this planet before they become our food?

So, as you sit there and judge the horror of what Michael Vick "allegedly" did, remember what my dad always said. “When you’re pointing a finger at someone, you’ve got three pointing right back at you.”

Comments (16)

Name

Title

Comment

Add Comment