Michael Vick...Animal Cruelty...
Michael Vick has been severely condemned (as well he should be) for his dog-fighting operation with its savagery toward helpless animals. However, our system of raising and slaughtering livestock for our dinner tables is no less barbaric. Indeed, very few have any conception of the violence and brutality that are inflicted on animals in order to gratify the meat-eating diet.
The whole Michael Vick affair has forced us to take another look at our carnivorous desensitization to the suffering of these animals. Are we less guilty because we close our eyes and ears to the situation? Ralph Waldo Emerson has assessed the situation eloquently: "You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity."
Suzanne
